drama

Review: All the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher

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Funny.  Sad.  Relatable.  Unbelievable.  This book covers all this and more.  And then it goes back and repeats.

Lenny has a lot going on in her life.  A LOT.  Her dad is dying from cancer, mom is a busy attorney who uses her job to escape that harsh reality, and sister Emma is away at college. That leaves Lenny to deal with the day to day stuff.  Still, she’s in denial about how sick her dad actually is.  She copes by keeping a list of all the different ways there are for the world to end.  Oh and her crush on one of her dad’s doctors.

I went back and forth on how much I enjoyed this book, alternating between liking it very much and just liking it.  It’s good, heartbreakingly so at times.  But there are some underlying issues I didn’t feel good about.  Lenny’s behavior at times borders on mentally unstable.  Understandable with all she’s dealing with but still.  And her obsession with the doctor is over the top. Nevertheless it’s a good read, a realistic picture of life and dealing with death.

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  All the Ways the World Can End

Review ~ The Alice Network, by Kate Quinn.

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img_0335Wow, where do I even start?   You know that moment where you have a genre, or even an idea of a genre, that you really fancy reading?  Well, you finally find it and hope that it delivers, even if it is just a fluffy entertaining read… and it does… In fact, it more than delivers, it smacks you and brings you back for another smack!   This is a bit like how I felt when I recently finished reading The Alice Network.

For a while now, I’ve wanted to read some good French Resistance/WWI/WWII fiction, and after many a “wasted” hour spent trawling Amazon, GoodReads, et al, I found this title and thought I’ll give it a go.  I didn’t read any reviews (no, that’s not a hint that you should stop reading this one!), and I delved straight in.

Now, I am going to warn you that this story is split/dual narrative and timeline/setting.  I know some people find that really jarring, but here, it seems to work well.  We have Charlie in 1947, looking for her cousin who disappeared in WWII, and then we have Eve, in 1915, who is approached to become a spy for the French Resistance in German occupied France.

Charlie is given Eve’s name as someone who may be able to help her, and therefore goes to find the now older spy.  From there begins a journey that neither character, or reader, could have predicted.

Now, I haven’t read any of Quinn’s previous novels (from what I’ve seen, Quinn seems to stick to Roman and medieval style Historical Fiction), so I had no expectations of her writing style, characterization, pace, etc etc…  The writing in The Alice Network is stark, to the point and realistic.  There is little unnecessary flowery language that tends to get used as filler.  The characters, for the most part, are three dimensional, believable, and not cliched.  I even really enjoyed the side characters, and each one could have easily warranted their own story in another book.

What I liked best about this book is that Quinn doesn’t patronize the reader; the actions of the characters are genuine and realistic.  While there were a couple of times that I would have taken a particular story thread in a different direction, overall I was really satisfied with the eventual traveled path.

I would have no hesitation is giving this novel 5 stars, and/or recommending it (as I have been) to anyone that likes to read.   See for yourself and pick up a copy!

~ Pegasus.

The Alice Network

Review: Don’t Wake Up by Liz Lawler

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I love medical mysteries.  Some of my classic favorites are from Robin Cook, the master of the genre.  So when I read the description of this new one, I just knew it was for me.

When Dr. Alex Taylor wakes up on an operating table, she’s naturally confused.  Did she suffer an accident that she can’t remember?  Nope, it’s something much more sinister.  Or at least that’s what she believes.  But her story of abduction by a madman is so absurd that nobody believes her, even though she’s a highly respected surgeon.  And then when strange things continue to happen, her credibility is further damaged.  And her sanity is called into question.  Can she get anybody to believe that her experience is somehow connected to a series of mysterious deaths?  And will it be too late to save herself?

This is a classic thriller.  It has all the elements needed for a suspenseful who-dunnit.  A great summer read!

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  Don’t Wake Up

Cover Reveal: The Time In Between by Kristen Ashley

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Super excited to announce this! I’m actually doing a Kristen Ashley rereadathon this summer. The Magdelene series will be the finial one I read, so it’s fresh in my mind before the release of this gorgeous book. Check it out!

About THE TIME IN BETWEEN (The Magdalene Series #3):

After a painful loss, Cady Moreland is coming to Magdalene to start the next chapter of her life. A chapter that began eighteen years ago but had a heartbreaking ending. The time in between was full of family and friendship, but Cady could never get the man she fell in love with all those years ago out of her heart.

Coert Yeager has learned to live without the girl who entered his life right when she shouldn’t and exited delivering a crippling blow he never would have suspected. The time in between was full of failing to find what he was missing…and life-altering betrayal.

But when that girl shows up in Magdalene and buys the town’s beloved lighthouse, even if Coert wants to avoid her, he can’t. A fire in town sparks a different kind of flame that won’t be ignored.

As Cady and Coert question the actions of the two young adults they once were thrown into earth-shattering circumstances, can they learn from what came in between and find each other again?

Isn’t it gorgeous?!

Be sure and check out the other two book in this trilogy:
The Will~ http://amzn.to/2rC6IPv
Soaring~ http://amzn.to/2rULews

And while you’re there, preorder The Time In Between:
Amazon~ http://amzn.to/2tsMWXO
BN~ http://bit.ly/2tp41lA
KOBO~ http://bit.ly/2rRxYsj

Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA and nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorize and she hadn’t taken her first breath!). Her mother said they took Kristen away, put her Mom back in her room, her mother looked out the window, and Gary was on fire (Dr. King had been assassinated four days before). Kristen’s Mom remembered thinking it was the end of the world. Quite the dramatic beginning.

Nothing’s changed.

Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana and has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus, she’s blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her family was (is) loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write. They all lived together on a very small farm in a small farm town in the heartland. She grew up with Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).

Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.

And as she keeps growing, it keeps getting better.

 

WEBSITE * FACEBOOK * TWITTER * NEWSLETTER * GOODREADS * PINTEREST * INSTAGRAM

 

 

Review: Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield

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What a tough read, this one was.  Still, compelling enough to keep me going.

June has it bad.  Her mom’s been dead for years, which is tragic enough.  But her stepmom makes it even worse.  She’s an evil stepmom in the most horrible way.  There’s abuse, both physical and emotional.  The saddest part is that her dad is oblivious to everything. Through it all, June retreats inside herself to escape.

And then she meets Blister.  On a walk through the woods one day, he’s just there.  And he becomes the most important person in her life.  His family becomes her safe haven as well.  Still, she can’t share her deepest darkest secrets with them.  Because if she had, maybe tragedy would have been averted…

A good story, both sad and hopeful at times.  Parts of it were hard to take, but it is what it is.

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  Paper Butterflies

 

Review: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

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east-of-edenI realise I’m going to take a lot of smack from many friends for my low rating of this novel….but it really just isn’t the book for me. I just didn’t much care about any of it….I couldn’t get into it….and by the time I gave up hope of getting involved with the characters, I just wanted it to end….it took FOREVER for that to actually happen….but I did stick it though until the end…..now all I can think of is all those books I could have been reading…

I often avoided “classic novels” in the past, just because I was afraid I would hate them. However, I no longer worry about hating them. So if I think they might interest me, I read them. If a new thriller comes out I think I might like, I will read it too. Or a *fluff* book. I read for me. Me alone.

There are many classics I love, despite them being hundreds of years old and labeled as classic. I no longer feel inferior if I hate them. I’ve never been the type to feel superior if I love them either. Reading has never been about impressing others. It’s always been about trying to impress myself with the wonderment of words set to a page…to have those words move me…to entertain me…to show me the world in a different light…to take me to a different world…or maybe even to inspire me to change something in my life…be it my views or my actions…but it’s never been about lying to impress someone else…so there you have it…

I hated this book…

Until next time…
Urania

Buy it now East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Review: The Salt House by Lisa Duffy

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Full of beauty and sorrow at the same time.  Heartbreaking but also uplifting.  A tale of despair yet also one of hope.  All of these things together make this an unforgettable story.

Hope and Jack have a great life.  They have three beautiful daughters, a nice home, a successful business.  Happiness.  But then tragedy strikes. And they are left with just two daughters.  Each family member copes, or doesn’t, in their own way.

A year later, they are at a standstill.  Time has put distance between them and their grief, but they haven’t really moved on.  Jack loses himself in his lobster fishing.  Hope loses herself in the memories of her lost daughter.  And the younger girls just go on being kids.

Everything comes to a head when a forgotten part of Jack’s past shows up at their door.  High school rivalries are reignited, this time with adult consequences.  Through it all Hope and Jack struggle to move past their grief and save their family.

Tragedies happen, families have to find ways to deal with them.   Told from alternating perspectives, this book takes us deep inside one family’s grief and their attempts to overcome it.  Each family member is dealing with their own struggles along with the collective struggle of the family.  It’s beautifully written, almost poetically so.  A story I won’t soon forget!

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  The Salt House

 

Review: Pearl by Jo Knowles

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I love Jo Knowles.  Some of my favorite books ever were written by her.  See You at Harry’s is one I won’t forget, and if you haven’t read it you really should.  But this review is about one of her older ones, Pearl.

Pearl and Henry are best friends.  One of the things they have in common is the strangeness of their mothers, although they’re nothing alike.  Henry’s mother is hugely overweight and doesn’t leave the house.  Pearl’s mother is not very involved, to put it mildly.  Luckily Pearl has grandfather Gus, the stable force in her life. But then Gus dies.  And in addition to being without the only parent she’s really had, Pearl now has to deal with family secrets that she never would have dreamed of.

This won’t go down as one of my favorites from this author.  Parts of the story were farfetched.  But the brilliant writing style of  Knowles more than makes up for that.

~Thalia

Buy it Now:  Pearl

Review: One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline

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Lisa Scottoline is greatness.  She has a way of pulling you in from the very first sentence and then not letting you go until the last page.  This latest thriller is no exception.

Chris Brennan is not who you think he is.  He seems like a perfect candidate for a small-town coaching/teaching position.  But everything about him is a lie.  And there’s a lot at stake, including lives.  Among the cast of characters are high schoolers with troubles of their own, single moms trying to get by, and married couples coping with lies as well.

I will tell you that this book made me think one thing at the beginning but then made me change my mind several times along the way.  It’s not who you think it is, and it’s not why, either.

This one is a great suspense story.  My only complaint is that the ending seemed a bit rushed in a bid to tie up loose ends.  That doesn’t take anything away from the riveting story, though.

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  One Perfect Lie

Review: I Found You by Lisa Jewell

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I admit, mysteries and thrillers are probably my genre du jour.  And the more twisty and turny, the better.  This one was definitely that!

When Alice comes across a strange man on the beach, she immediately senses he needs help.  He has no memory, nothing to indicate where he came from.  So of course she takes him in until he can figure out just who he is.  And predictably, she falls for him along the way.

Meanwhile, young newlywed Lily is in a panic because her husband has disappeared without a trace.  He just went to work one day and never came home.  While trying to find him, she discovers he wasn’t who she thought he was.   In fact, the man she married doesn’t even exist.

Step back in time, now, to a tragic event that happened on the very same beach where Alice came across her handsome stranger.  Could these events possibly related?  And could Lily’s missing husband be connected?  But of course!   It wouldn’t be a thriller otherwise.

I love Lisa Jewell’s stories.  They rely heavily on characters and family connections while at the same time portraying them authentically.  Her latest is no different.  Grab it!

~Thalia

Buy It Now:  I Found You