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Review: After You by Jojo Moyes

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Want to know what Louisa does after she loses Will in ME BEFORE YOU? I did too. I fell in love with Lou (CLARK!!!!) and I couldn’t let her go. 

AFTER YOU shows us Lou’s grief, her attempt at supporting the Traynors, her meandering spirit as she tries to find her way back in life, and her maternal side. 

I liked the meandering the best. I mean, when we lose someone, we don’t just jump back into reality. We look for supports and crutches and strongholds… And we are picky, because we don’t want to choose one that will cause more loss. 

Thanks Jojo Moyes for giving us more Louisa. It was enough that we lost Will. 

-calliope

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Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

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mebeforeThis is another prime example of why I don’t read book descriptions. If I had read this book’s description I doubt if I would have given it a chance…If I had done that I would have missed out on this fantastic novel.

Yes, I won’t lie…it is sad….I would even say it is somewhat predictable. I knew long before the reader was *told* what was going on. I also knew how it would end. However, I will say that unlike a “Nicolas Spark” (yes, I am about to be negative about NS, get over it) I did not feel like the ending was done just to jerk on the readers emotional chain. I don’t feel like it was done for shock value. I feel it was done to keep the book honest.

It doesn’t really matter if you agree with the choices the characters made for their future (without giving massive spoilers here it is very difficult to discuss this novel)…the point of the novel is that it is ultimately the character’s own choice. No matter how much we love someone. No matter how much we want to do the right thing….at the end of the day we have to love those in our lives enough to let them make their own choices, even if we disagree with them with every fiber of our being.

Moyes does a fabulous job of pointing this out. Of, hopefully, making the reader aware that we shouldn’t be so quick to judge the actions of others. That we should never ever say what is right for another person.

I think much of the public think that the choices discussed in this novel are *easy* choices…or an *easy* way out of a terrible situation. After reading this novel I’m pretty sure it’s obvious that this just isn’t the case. Bravery and selflessness is shown by all the characters in this novel. Yes, it is something they are all struggling with….but at the end of the day they all put away their own desires to support an unbearable end…

I had my own personal beliefs about issues discussed in this book before I read it. I still have the same outlook after reading it. Bottom line….you have no idea of the struggles people go though, even those that are closet to you and ones that you love. You have no right to press your viewpoints on to someone else. You have no right to tell someone what they must do, even if you do so with the very best intentions….As humans we have a basic obligation to respect each other’s wishes and to not pass judgement on something we don’t have a clue about. No one knows how they would act in a situation until they are actually in THAT situation. You can tell yourself a million times that “I would never make that choice”, but until you’re forced to do so you really can’t be sure….

Yea…yea….yea….I know this is a rubbish review and you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about….so stop reading it already and go out and read the damn book whydon’tcha?

Until next time….
Urania xx

Buy it now Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Review: Stella Mia by Rosanna Chiofalo

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Stella Mia is a novel about love, gypsies and looking for a home, and the beautiful beaches of Italy. But mostly it’s a hauntingly beautiful tale about mothers and daughters.

Julia finds her mother’s diary, and because her mother left when she was young, it’s a treasure to Julia. The book opens with Julia’s story, but really pulls you in during the flashback to Julia’s mother’s life. The flashback is the bulk of the story.

We find out how Julia’s mother Sarina grew up, how she made her own way, how she fell in love, and how she sacrificed her own happiness for someone else.

The end poignantly brings the story back to Julia. I didn’t know how invested I was until I felt tears running down my face, in sorrow and joy at Julia and Sarina’s love for each other.

Stella Mia is sad, I’ll be honest. It’s harsh at times, disturbing, and heartbreaking. But it’s all worth it when you get to the parts about holding hands on the beach, singing Stella Mia, and feeling the love when someone says Ti voglio bene. Kinda just like life.

-calliope

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Review: Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

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This is a romantic story, in the old-fashioned sense of it being nostalgic and dreamy and sigh-inducing. It blends a historical-coming-of-age story with a contemporary “finding oneself” plot. Rosie leaves London to help her aging great-aunt in the countryside. While she’s there she makes connections that fulfill an emptiness she didn’t even know she had. There’s a happily-ever-after, but it’s a tad bittersweet, kind of ironic for a sweetshop owner. 🙂

I loved Rosie’s story: her capers as a medical nurse, her hilarious clumsy attempts at traveling in the country, and her funny attempts at making friends.

I really didn’t like the flashbacks to Aunt Lilian’s youth. I’d be all into Rosie’s story and then BOOM Lilian’s story would interrupt it. You might like the alternating flashback format, but it seemed disjointed to me.

I really DID like the candy recipes and the editorial comments at the beginning of each chapter. I felt like the author was talking to just me, drawing me into the book!

My absolute favorite favorite parts of Sweetshop of Dreams were: when Rosie (with Edison by her side) tells off the dentist and Edison’s mom; and when Rosie goes careening off her bike head over heels. Yes, head over heels.

Sweetshop of Dreams turned into a contemporary romance after all. “Love is caramel… Always welcome… Easy melting of two souls into one… A taste that lingers even when everything else has melted away.” Lilian may have missed her chance at true love, but Rosie certainly “got lucky” when she moved to Lipton.

-Calliope

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Review: Just One Thing by Holly Jacobs

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20140612-122043-44443951.jpg Loss is powerful. So powerful that sometimes people lose themselves because they are so distraught from the grief of losing someone else. In Just One Thing, Lexie didn’t function as her normal self anymore. She created a shell of a person in order to get through her days. Bartender Sam did the same thing.

And because they couldn’t crack their shells, to all at once release their authentic selves, they did it one thing at a time. Lexie and Sam exchanged one statement, one feeling, one story each week, until they formed a friendship– a real, honest, trusting friendship.

I loved hearing their “one things.” It’s rough to climb out of grief. It’s painful to trust someone again. Telling a friend one thing and being able to hold back the rest makes the climbing easier. It makes telling the NEXT thing easier. I totally sympathized with Lexie’s loss and grief and feeling of emptiness. And I knew she’d feel fulfilled again once she shed her shell.

I read for fun, you know, so I appreciated the wit, the poignancy, and the romance in Just One Thing. The story was about lifting up, healing, overcoming.

Lexie and Sam’s love story may have started out slowly and reluctantly, but when they healed enough to open up fully, they loved deeply and joyfully. Sigh. Dreamy, right? The whole book is dreamy. Deep and joyful love… that’s a happily-ever-after all day long.

-Calliope

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Review – Indecent Proposal by Jack Engelhard

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indecent proposalRaise your hands those of you that remember seeing the 1993 (20 years ago!) angst fest that was Indecent Proposal. Was you Team Woody or Team Robert? Well, treasure those beloved memories because the original story is far different from the wildly popular film adaptation. This book explores so many emotional, historical, societal, and contemporary issues, that it makes the film look positively flat.

We all know the story – apparently happily married couple try their luck in Atlantic City, get propositioned by a billionaire, and deal with the repercussions. However, the novel explores the still relevant issue of Arab vs Israeli conflicts. Joshua is Jewish and has had harrowing experiences of WWII, and Ibrahim (the billionaire) is Arab and has his own views. Although this may sound a strange aspect to write about, it actually adds to the morality tale. It isn’t just simply a question of “would you spend a night with anther person for $1,000,000?” – the different cultural and historical layers all play a part, especially in the aftermath of dealing with fall out from decisions made.

The character development in the book is really strong. Joan and Josh are not two naive high school sweethearts – they’ve been around the block a few times. Throughout, you will (or at least I did) love and hate these characters with equal measure. No one is perfect, and no one is correct all of the time.

This is not a comfortable read by any stretch of the imagination. At times it feels so authentic that you feel like you are a fly on the wall. The discomfort is what really makes this novel; the rawness, emotion, morality, faith, lack of faith, missed opportunities, that you witness when reading this novel, is what sets it apart from most other morality tales. Just like real morality and real humans, this tale will take you all kinds of directions – some expected and many not.

At only $4.95, go and treat yourself to a different kind of novel that will question everything you have ever believed.

Enjoy!

Pegasus.

Indecent Proposal

Review – The Good German by Joseph Kanon

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147326There have been thousands of books written about WWII, but not as many focus on the immediate aftermath, let alone set in immediate post-war Berlin. In The Good German, Joseph Kanon explores the many different facets of war, the intricacies of motive, and the ethical dilemmas one can be faced with when carrying out actions in the name of love and war.

The plot follows Jake, an American reporter that is on his way to Berlin to write an article on the post-war efforts to re-build the city. Once in Berlin, Jake stumbles upon the body of an American soldier and finds evidence that all may not be what it seems. Along the way, Jake encounters a host of characters that he will later reunite with further in the story. The plot essentially is split up between a love story and a mystery; Jake has a secondary reason for going to Berlin, which is to seek out his former Girlfriend, Lena, who he had met on a previous trip. Rest assured though, there are many plot twists and diversions in order to save it from becoming a two dimensional experience.

What I loved most about this book, apart from the entertaining plot, was that it really made you question your already strongly held morals. It presents both sides of an argument and doesn’t necessarily side with either argument. What you once thought hypocritical, might actually make sense. What you once found acceptable might now be unacceptable. What you once found abhorrent might now be not so abhorrent. There is no right or wrong answer set in stone. If you want a book that will question and challenge your views/morals and not a cozy mystery that will sit you around a camp fire, with you signing kumbyah, and present you with a box of answers with a nice bow tie on it (I don’t knock any that type of book – sometimes we need that!), then do yourself a favour and pick up The Good German.
Hope to see you next week for another review!
~ Pegasus.
The Good German

Review ~ Labor Day by Joyce Manard.

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20140202-111551.jpgHmmm,…. Where to even begin? Ok, let’s start with the basic premise, before I go into detail why I did not like this book. The reader is introduced to 13 year old Joe (the narrator) and his mother, Adele. Living on their own in rural New Hampshire, we are told that Adele is not exactly all there. On one of their rare trips out of the house to get Joe some school supplies, they get held hostage and told to drive back home with Frank, a newly escaped prisoner.

This is where it goes to pieces.

I’m going to split this up into three sections: plot, writing and general absurdities.

Plot: without giving too much away, let’s just say that the way this plot fleshes out is extremely trite and unrealistic. I get that we need to suspend disbelief in a fiction novel, but really, don’t insult me by trying to pass off something that is utter shite. Maybe it is because I’m only in my late twenties, but really, I feel like I’ve had enough experience in life to know the basics of a relationship!

Writing:
Now, the writing isn’t terrible , but it isn’t exactly good either. The narrator is that of a hormonal, wet behind the ears, 13 year old. Not exactly reliable. For a book that’s not even 250 pages, Maynard spends way too long on Joe and his experiences throughout this time.
I’ve got no problem with coming of age novels, but in this instance, there were two strong elements to this story and not enough pages to fully explore one, let alone two. We’ve seen many plots explore young teenagers dealing with their sexual awakening, learning new things about the world and themselves, etc… However, Adele’s story is very different and had real potential to be fleshed out and had it been expanded further, it might have made me give it more credence.

General absurdities: this is going to be short as I don’t want to give too much away. Some of the tropes used in this novel were so cliche and old that throughout, I found myself audibly saying “really?”. I also didn’t like how the author coupled a certain act with punishment.

As you can probably tell, I really didn’t think much of this novel. It had real potential, and a few parts were good, but it just didn’t connect with me. However, the great thing about fiction is that it appeals to different people in different ways, so give it a go, and you might well love it.
Anyway, must dash, I have to stay in the air as a certain muse has threatened to remove my hooves!

~ Pegasus.

Labor Day Movie Tie- In Edition: A Novel (P.S.)

Review – The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

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15818333In 2013, the age of Instant Messaging, texting, face-iThingy, etc…, how many of us really know or speak to our neighbours anymore? Would you notice if two teenage girls were living with abusive and irresponsible parents? Would you notice if those parents were to disappear? Well, luckily for you, Lisa O’Donnell explores this conundrum in her debut novel, The Death of Bees. Set in present day Glasgow, O’Donnell presents the reader with Nelly and Marnie – two teenage girls growing up in some of the worse conditions imaginable. Their situation gets exponentially more precarious when their parents die, and they are suddenly left to fend for themselves. Don’t worry, I didn’t just give away a spoiler – you know this happens right from the get go. Marnie and Nelly’s quest for survival from both death, and the social services is the main focus of the story and along the way, we meet a host of interesting characters that intersect with Marnie and Nelly.
O’Donnell’s narrative is split between 3 people, and each one provides a different view point of events. At first it was a little jarring to read through the eyes of Nelly, as she has a very particular way of speaking. However, you soon get used to it and it really provides character. The amount of time spent on each narrative is perfect; you never once feel like you’ve been spending too long reading as one character. The language used by the characters is not pretty – but then life isn’t always pretty – it is honest, sparse, and real.
If you’re looking for your next unique read, I would highly recommend this one. It runs the gauntlet of emotions (it will even make you feel physically sick at one point!) and does not let up, but at the same time, it isn’t depressing for the sake of being depressing. There is light amongst these characters and it shines just as often as it is put out. It is a relatively short read, so if you can read it in one sitting, or even two, then that would be the way to do it so that you don’t lose the rhythm of the narration.
You can get this fresh, unique and honest story here – The Death of Bees: A Novel

~ Pegasus.

Review: The Happy Endings Book Club by Jane Tara

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20131222-104759.jpg This book is weird. That’s my opinion, and it’s not to say the book is bad, because it’s not. The book is well written and clever; it’s just the quirkiest, oddest book I’ve ever read. I was slogging through it, not enjoying it at all, when all of a sudden at 75% of the way through, I got it. I understood. And I burst into tears as all the problems of all the characters met inside my mind and exploded there. I’m not sure if that made me ENJOY the book any more than before, but I sure do appreciate it now.

The Happy Endings Book Club is a group of women who need a little encouragement and uplifting. They’re fading into the background of life and need some verve. Some of the women find “life” in reality, and some find it in fantasy: fairly lands and magic.

The fantasy world in the novel isn’t isolated like Hogwarts in Harry Potter. Instead, it’s part of the regular world… More like fantastical beings existing with all their powers in the mortal world. And while that allows great freedom in the plot, it also confuses a linear realist like me!

I liked the characters, the plot lines, the endings and new beginnings. I had a tough time with the magic, the fairyland, and the special powers…. but only because those are out of my comfort zone. This clever novel opened my eyes and gave me a lot to think about.

–Calliope

Buy it now The Happy Endings Book Club