Month: August 2013

Review: Pivot Point by Kasie West (and giveaway!)

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11988046 You know how you buy some books because they sound good-ish at the time and then when you finally read them months later you wonder why the heck you bought the book in the first place? (Maybe that’s just me…) Well, this book was so the opposite of that. I was expecting an average book when I began this but got an amazingly well written and captivating book instead. Yay to pleasant surprises!

Addie Coleman lives in a city where everyone has a type of paranormal power of the mind. Her power is a form of clairvoyance that allows her to take a decision she needs to make and see into the future (within limits) both paths that the choices would lead to. When her parents get a divorce she has to decide which parent to live with. Her mother is staying in the city Addie has grown up in and her father is moving out of the city into the normal world where no one has powers. Addie chooses to look into the future over the next 6 weeks to see which one she should choose.

Just the plot of this book is rather unique, with all of the YA books that I read I haven’t come across another with anything close to it. This is the author’s debut novel and I was blown away by that because of how well written and thought out the book comes across. I was surprised many times by different twists and plot points. Pivot Point has some suspense, a little bit of YA romance and while some of the characters have paranormal powers it is not heavy on that part. So if you normally stay away from the paranormal type books I would give this a chance!

Even better than the plot are the characters. Addie and her friends are all very fleshed out. Addie, in particular, was great – I understood her emotions and all of her actions made sense to me. I completely hate when I read a book and I spend most of the time wanting to smack the main character. Happily, that was not the case here.

If you’d like to win a copy of Pivot Point you need to do 2 things – follow this blog and comment on this post. I’ll post the winner next Thursday the 15th.

5 stars

~ Clio

Buy it Now Pivot Point

Review: The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

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princeNever been both, so happy to see a book end and sad at to finish the last page as I have with TPoT. This is one of the types of books I love the most…so beautiful that you ache with each word you read…yet at the same time your gut is clinched in knots that are painful and your heart is pounding out of your chest because of the horrors you are witnessing. yes, I said witnessing. I did not simply *read* this book….I was there. I experienced it. I witnessed it. I felt it….There were parts I laughed so hard that I almost had tears rolling out of my eyes…there were times where I felt so much pride that I wanted to cry…there were times I felt such righteous anger that I had tears of anger blurring my vision….there were times I felt so lost and hopeless that I could only cry….and there were times that this book actually brought chills upon my skin….Finally, there were times that I had no choice except to put the book down for a while and walk away and try to distance myself from it. At times it was simply too much for me to bear….

The grandparents reminded me of characters from a Fannie Flagg novel. So eccentric, outrageous and lovely that you hate your childhood, just because you didn’t have them in it. There is no way you could not feel pure enjoyment at some of the happenings in the town. At other times, I was so mad I could taste bitter bile in my mouth….so angry, I felt my pulse pounding. But most of what I felt was a sorrow that stayed with me, even after I laid the book down and tried to forget.

I grew up in the South. Besides the ending (which was the only objection I had to this entire book, I felt the ending was just too much….too contrived to be believable), I felt that this novel was not a work of fiction. It was a life that could be found in many many a Southern town. I bet I knew some of these people. I bet some of me can be found in these pages. I felt fierce pride at so many moments in this book. Pride for perhaps the first time at being a Southerner. At other times, I knew for a certainty why I no longer live there. This…Book….Was…..Very….Real to me….

It would be so easy to point the finger at any of the characters in this book and tell them why they were wrong. It would be just as easy to understand why they were as broken as they were.

What one can not so easily explain is how they are still beautiful and how you have no choice but to love each and every one of them. What is so hard to accept about your own self is that you feel sorrow for them. That despite the horrible things that they did, you understand that they are all good people. That they all have a fierce love for family. That they did so much wrong, but that in the end, they honestly did the best that they could in that moment in time.

I like to think we are all above how we were raised. That every bad rotten thing we experienced or witnessed has made us into a better person. I like to think that we all have the power within us to *always* do the right thing. Life however has taught us all otherwise. Can any one of us not think of a single time where we have had wrongs done to us and wish we had behaved differently? No, most of us have not done atrocities to those we love….nor have we had atrocities done to us….but can any one of us look back and not see one instance where we wish we had chosen a different way? A better way. Reacted differently? In the end, they are just people who did what they did and wished that they had behaved differently. They suffered for the choices that they made, because they had to live with those choices. They did not simply act and move on….

We should all take away from this book that the choices we make not only effect other people, they also effect us. There is no running away from the past. The past is a part of you that you always carry with you….No matter how much you deny it or reject it…it is still a part of you. Good or bad, it helps to shape you into the person you are today. No, we do not have to constantly live in the past….but let us all hope that we have learned from our own personal history. It’s never to late to change your life…I sincerely hope that it’s never to late to make amends and try to make it right….

~Urania

Buy it now The Prince of Tides: A Novel

Review: The Dinner by Herman Koch

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The Dinner tells a tale of the dark side of normal. The book totally disturbed me, and I think it was supposed to.

You know how Hannibal Lector disturbed everyone, and no one would ever admit to admiring him, but you just know there are people out there admiring him? Well, Herman Koch made me stand in terrified awe of Paul and Claire Lohman, and their son Michel. And they admired each other for the same reasons I was freaked out.

Paul and his arrogant politician brother Serge, along with their wives, meet at dinner to discuss a crime their teenage sons committed together. One family wants to admit the guilt; the other wants to hide the crime. Instead of working out a solution among the four, Paul and Claire bully their way to protecting their son.

I couldn’t love this book because the nature of the crime and the coverup was too disturbing for me. But I appreciated the brilliance of the plot development, the psychological thrill ride, and the deliberate writing. So often Koch intimated something without spelling it out: instead of reading that the neighbor is a pedophile, we read that Michel and other boys often go to the single male neighbor’s house to sit on the sofa, drink Cokes, and listen to music together. Koch employed this technique often – and I appreciate the effort it takes to describe a situation so precisely that the hints and circumstance tell so very much more than a stark statement of fact.

If you like dark journeys into the disturbed corners of the human mind, join the Lohmans at The Dinner.

-Calliope

P.S. Remember to follow this blog and comment on the Giveaway post to be entered into our August giveaway of Pivot Point and The Sea of Tranquility.

Buy It Now The Dinner

Happy Birthday to US…and a Giveaway!

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Next week our blog will be exactly 1 month old! The 5 of us have been having so much fun reviewing books and getting feedback both from readers and from some of the Authors we’ve reviewed.

We want to keep going and just make the blog better and better every month.

But in the meantime Happy Blog-iversary to us!! On behalf of all of the muses thank you to anyone who has read our posts!!

To celebrate I’m going to give away two of my most recent favorite books that I’ve read.

Pivot Point by Kasie West & The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

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I’ve read both of these in the last month or so and they were both 5 star books for me. I’ll be posting my review of Pivot Point on Saturday and my review of The Sea of Tranquility. But spoiler alert – they were both freaking awesome. But in totally different ways.

So if you’d like to enter for the giveaway you need to do just 2 things – become a follower of this blog and comment on any of this post or the 2 reviews I’ll be doing. If you’re interested in only one of the books make sure to comment which one.

Next Thursday the 15th I’ll post the winners and contact you about getting your ebook to you!

Good luck 🙂

~ Clio

Review: It Had to Be You by Jill Shalvis

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imageAli Winters is having a rough day. She discovers that her boyfriend is cheating. Said boyfriend dumps her before she can dump him. She was living with her now ex-boyfriend, who didn’t renew the lease on the house, which now leaves her homeless.

Luke Hanover is not having a good day himself. He was in charge of the investigation of multiple murders, with the prime suspect being a prominent senator. The case ended with the death of the senator’s aide and the senator killing himself. Luke is using all of his vacation time to return home to Lucky Harbor and to be left alone.

Unfortunately, Ali is still at his house when he goes home. Feeling bad for her situation, he allows her to stay. Soon, he is helping her investigate who stole the 50K that Ali is accused of stealing. Also, he is dragged into investigating smaller crimes that his grandpa’s friends need help solving.

It is always fun to visit the small but lively town of Lucky Harbor. I enjoyed watching Ali and Luke circle each other and eventually give in to their lust. I liked seeing that lust develop into something more. Ali and Luke both have some baggage involving their families that they must overcome.

The outcome of the books in this sweet, funny and sometimes sexy series is always predictable but thoroughly enjoyable to read. There is sequel bait with Luke’s two friends, Jack, the firefighter and the mysterious, unseen, military man, Ben. I look forward to their stories and revisiting Lucky Harbor.

This is the 7th book in the Lucky Harbor series but it can definitely be read as a standalone. It’s a great entry to the series because it’s the start of a trilogy within the series. The next book features Jack and Ali’s friend, Leah.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley.

~Thalia

Buy It Now It Had to Be You (Lucky Harbor)

Review: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (Translator)

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windupHow does one review a Murakami book? First I will start by saying, this guy is way too smart for me to grasp all of what he writes. Having said that, I think there was a time in my life that I would have grasped a lot more, but perhaps that time for me has passed….I think to truly appreciate all he expresses in a book that one must read his work over and over. If there is ever a book that you wish to have a dog-eared copy of, with passages underlined 3 times in bold pen, Murakami’s works would be it.

Part of my problem trying to absorb (and this is an author you *really* do absorb…He words sink into your bones, into your very tissue…one does not simply read Murakami, if you do, you are not doing it right….)Murakami is that I often get so enthralled with a single passage that my mind must stay and linger there for a great deal of time. Never mind that I have tried to continue on reading, my mind is still caressing a single passage over and over….so in effect, I often find myself having to go back and re read parts of the book….

Now this book. Many questions are asked here…and in true Murakami style, he leaves much to you, the reader, to decide the answers…I often get aggravated with authors that do this, but not with Murakami. He always ends the books in the only way possible to end them!

Yes, he has the moon and the stars in this book. He has good and evil. He has mysterious women….and he has a very simple, ordinary man, faced with what he knows in his heart to be true, even though everyone and everything is saying different. I think this book had a beautiful, fairy tale ending to it. It was so suspenseful in parts (I usually don’t get my heart pounding so fast as this book did!)….How far would you go for love? How much faith could you put in what your heart knows to be true, even though you mind tells you it is not? Finally, the question is asked is all you gain in the end worth the price you pay to stay true to your own self?

Of course there are many other aspects to this book…Far too many for me to try to explain or even understand, but this is what will stick with me from this book for a long time…..

as is true with any Murakami novel, you should travel this journey yourself to experience all he has to offer….and remember, you *must* stop and enjoy the scenery…the desalination of his books are only that…the end….the true magic lies in just getting there…..

~Urania

Buy it now The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel

Review: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

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I’m not really a runner. I jog a mile here and there, but I do it because it’s healthy, not because I love it. And here I was reading a book about people who LOVE to run. They love to run so much that they run 20, 30, even 100 miles in a day.

The first half was a little boring. McDougall gave me some science and some anthropology and some history… but nothing exciting. I expected that from non-fiction, so I kept reading. And it got better.

I cried for the village that helped its runners along the mountains and canyons. I thirsted with the guy who gave away his last ounces of water to someone who needed it more. I whooped with the college girl who had so much fun running that her joy and her craft knew no bounds. I sighed in relief for the guy who finished 50 miles of cliff and canyon running in 12 hours — when only 2 years earlier he couldn’t run a mile without pain.

I said before that I don’t love running. But after reading Born to Run, I WANT to love running.

See you on the trails sometime!

–Calliope

Buy It Now Born To Run

Review: Married by Morning Lisa Kleypas

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image“Was this some new level of depravity? Had he developed a spinster fetish?”

Lisa Kleypas has created one of her most captivating heroes in Leo Hathaway. As a young man, Leo lost his fiancée to scarlet fever. This tragedy turned him into a hedonistic, sarcastic scoundrel. A very funny one.

“Oh, I have a very pure soul. It’s only my private parts that have gotten me into trouble.”

“Tell me about our legal issues. And use small words. I don’t like to think at this hour of the morning. It hurts.”

Catherine Marks is the one lady who can match wits with him. As they banter back and forth, they acknowledge that beneath that hatred is a mutual attraction. They go from trying to find the worst on each to learning about the best in each other.

It was a pleasure to watch them fall in love. The Hathaway family is there along with a mischevious ferret named Dodger to help Leo and Marks through their courtship. One of Kleypas’ funniest books punctuated by sweet memorable moments.

This is the fourth book in the Hathaways series. This book can be read as a standalone but I highly recommend reading the previous books. Marks and Leo’s relationship develops through the series and you can see the attraction building.

~Thalia

Buy It Now Married By Morning (Hathaways)

Review: Covet, by Tracey Garvis-Graves

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Let me start out by saying a few things. This is my first book by Ms. Garvis-Graves. I have On the Island, but haven’t read it yet. I figured if everyone raves about it, I should, but I haven’t gotten around to it. So when I saw this book, I assumed if everyone likes the other ones, this would probably be similar and I’d like it also. Know what they say about assuming??

I know what the word covet means. I just never read the description or reviews. I just assumed I knew what it was gonna be like. And plus I really liked the cover. I mean, with a gorgeous cover like that, it can’t be bad, right?

I think I may have jumped the gun a bit.

Chris and Claire were struggling in their marriage and they didn’t know what to do. He spent more time away from his house than he did living in it. He misses his wife and kids, but after a year of unemployment, this job is the only thing keeping them afloat. He’s willing to do anything to support his family, but he doesn’t realize the cost of being away.

Claire loves her husband, but is lonely. She meets Daniel, a local cop, and starts a friendship with him. At first, it was all innocent, but after a while lines were getting fuzzy and that was hard to read. She finds herself thinking about Daniel and spending lots of time with him.

I’m not a fan of any kinds of cheating, emotional or physical. So I almost didn’t finish it. I had to take a break for a while.

The intermingling stories of their friends and neighbors were a nice touch. You saw a glimpse into the lives of others that you realize could be your neighbors or friends. It was very believable. I think that’s why it was difficult to read. It’s something that happens more times that we even realize.

I will say this, it does have a HEA, but you have to get through some hard situations to get there.

I received this ARC for an honest review.

~Melpomene

Buy it now Covet

Review: Always Watching by Chevy Stevens; Narrated by Joyce Bean

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16044953 Chevy Stevens’ debut novel Still Missing surprised me and kind of blew me away with how much I loved it. Her second novel, Never Knowing was almost as good so I was really looking forward to Always Watching, her third novel. I chose to get the audio book because I love to listen to them.

There are many narrators I love and rarely do I find one that I hate. Joyce Bean was just kind of meh. I found her to be too monotone almost immediately but figured that the story would outweigh the narrator. I was so wrong.

Nadine is a psychiatrist who works in the lockdown ward of the psychiatric hospital. She is treating a young woman who had spent time with a cult when that triggers her own unhappy memories from the time she was with the same cult. She uncovers some nasty memories that she was unaware of and her life kind of spins out of control from there. Her own daughter is a homeless runaway. Nadine tries to put all these pieces together.

There is very little I liked about this book. The plot felt contrived and forced from the beginning. There wasn’t one character I really felt anything for – I didn’t feel one way or the other about anyone in the book. Honestly, I just wanted the book to be over. There is a “mystery” of what the uncovered memories will reveal but it was obvious to me. There was a mystery throughout the book dealing with the cult leader and his nefarious ways. But my overwhelming feeling was I don’t care.

I found Nadine to be whiny, I really disliked her daughter and her brother was annoying.

As I got further into the audiobook the narration got worse and worse to me – the monotone in the beginning got worse. The only reason I finished it is because I loved the author’s first two books so much.

If someone else read and liked it please let me know what I was missing out on!

2 stars for the book. 2 stars for the narration.

~ Clio