Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Vox by Christina Dalcher

It’s hard not to compare Vox to The Handmaid’s Tale, and frankly, it feels a little derivative. Set in the “now” but with a slight twist, the religious right has risen up after that hopey-changey African American president and hijacked, and silenced, half the country. Women now have to wear a bracelet on their wrists that limit them to 100 words a day or they get an electric shock, and the government has plans to silence them permanently. They’ve conscripted Dr. Jean McClellen to help them in their efforts, and she’s received a temporary reprieve from her bracelet, only to have her husband say that he liked her better when she was silent. Her teenaged son is swallowing the propaganda hook line and sinker, and her five-year-old daughter gets an award for not saying an entire word all day at school. The premise is great… but then the rest of the plot happens. There are some unnecessary coincidences (her mother has a stroke in the exact part of her brain that Jean is an expert on, really?) and the events at the end are murky and hard to understand. I feel like this book could have been so much more, and that it needed a bit more time in development to flesh out the details better. Sorry, I’m a details gal!

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Girl's Night Out by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Ashley, Natalie and Lauren head to Tulum, Mexico, to have some bonding time and reconnect. Things have been strained between them since the death of Lauren’s husband a year earlier – she hasn’t spoken to either of them even though they are all longtime best friends. Ashley and Natalie are business partners, but that relationship is taking its toll; when they get a buyout offer Nat wants to take it but Ashley doesn’t. Amid this turmoil that ladies land in Tulum, but when things should be getting better they just get worse. Girl’s Night Out is told in alternating timelines between their last day in Mexico, when Natalie wakes up and finds that Ashley is missing, and when they first landed and the events leading up to her disappearance. I like the effect, as the tension keeps building until you find out what happened to Ashley. She spent more time flirting with a handsome stranger than hanging out with her girlfriends, Natalie can’t remember what happened the night before, and Lauren is acting suspiciously … but where is Ashley? Liz & Lisa will take you on a wild ride once again with plenty of unexpected twists and turns.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

I’m not sure how to rate this one. It was so creepy that I almost stopped reading it several times, and yet so captivating that I couldn’t help but stick it out to the end. Suzette and Alex have a seven-year-old daughter, Hanna, who won’t speak. Not can’t, won’t. Until one day she does, but it’s to terrify her mother by pretending she is possessed by a long-deceased “witch” from France. And so the turmoil begins, though really it’s been building for years. Hanna is precocious, psychopathic, and out to kill Suzette so she can have her dad all to herself. Really, that’s the plot! Every parent out there is cringing! Suzette is hyper-vulnerable; she suffers from Crohn’s Disease, and since no school will keep Hanna for more than a couple of days, she's stuck homeschooling her mute Bride-of-Chucky daughter. Alex thinks Hanna can do no wrong, and turns a blind eye each time he is confronted with evidence of his daughter’s devilish ways. Sure, it’s a little sensationalist, and probably a step beyond what parents of violent or psychopathic kids really go through, or is it??

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Everything We Give by Kerry Lonsdale

Aimee, Ian, and James are back with the conclusion to the Everything series, though James and his messed up family only have a small part to play in this installment. Instead, we get to learn Ian’s backstory, which, as it turns out, is equally messed up. He was raised by a mother with multiple-personalities and a distant father, so how he ended up so well-adjusted and successful is beyond me. But, he’s actually not okay inside and he needs to find some closure with his parents (who he hasn’t seen in almost 20 years since his mom got out of prison). But first, he needs to go to Spain, take some amazing photographs for National Geographic and confront his own ex. The whirlwind plots and steamy sex scenes continue in this installment, and it’s an entertaining summer read.

Friday, July 6, 2018

Whisper Me This by Kerry Anne King

When Maisey returns to her hometown after an incident that leaves both of her aging parents in the hospital, she’s not sure what she is going to find. Running away from her problems and drifting through life seems to be her way of dealing with things, but now she’s stuck back in small-town Washington trying to figure out what secrets her parents have been keeping from her all these years. Throw in her controlling ex and a hot local firefighter, and you have some drama! The real core of this book is about abuse though, including the many forms it can take and what people do to get away from it. I shed many a tear but was also uplifted by the hope and love along the way.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

The Intermission by Elyssa Friedland

Cass and Jonathan seem to have it all: a great apartment in NYC, tons of money, and hopefully a baby on the way soon. But can a relationship built on a foundation of lies actually last? Cass starts to question this herself and decides that what they really need is a break, or “intermission,” from their marriage. She’ll spend hers in LA, rediscovering herself, while Jonathan will just sink under his heavy workload until she gets back, or so she thinks. The reality is quite different, and while absence can often make the heart grow fonder, in this case the couple starts to grow apart. As the truths about what they’ve done to each other and the secrets they’re keeping start to spill out, you might find yourself thinking that they’re better off apart, or that they truly deserve each other! Friedland leaves you guessing until the very end, and this book is just begging to be read on vacation by a beach somewhere.

Friday, June 29, 2018

A Merciful Silence by Kendra Elliot

Book Four of the Mercy Kilpatrick series was a great installment and slightly better than the middle two. This time Elliot tackles the Sovereign Citizens movement, and doesn’t give them the same respect as she does the preppers, and rightfully so! Truman pulls over one these wingnuts only to learn that he’s kicked a hornet’s nest and is soon abducted by them. Mercy goes into rescue mode, while concurrently trying to solve a series of grisly murders. Are they connected, and can she get to Truman before it’s too late? I was a little sad while reading the book as this was supposed to be the end of the four-book series, but in the author’s note Elliot reveals that there is more to come. Yay! I just hope it doesn’t involve either Mercy or her beau being on the brink of death again… I think they’ve been through enough for a while.

Friday, June 22, 2018

The Ever After by Sarah Pekkanen


Josie finds out that her husband, Frank, is having an affair. This story could go so many ways, but Sarah Pekkanen tees it up for a reconciliation right from the start. They didn’t actually sleep together. It was only a couple of times. He’s so sorry. He is a five-star human, going to church and volunteering at a homeless shelter. He’ll be her punching bag forever as long as she takes him back. By the end of the book, Josie starts to look like the “bad guy” because she used to go to bed early to avoid hanging out or having sex with Frank! The other example of an “affair” is equally weird, with Josie’s best friend admitting that another guy kissed her once. Huh? That’s not an affair people! There are some funny moments about motherhood tucked in between (Josie notes that she can easily fill up a half hour chit chatting about nothing with an acquaintance so as to avoid talking about her separation) and you’ll feel happy for them all at the predictable conclusion. 

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison


If the Roses of May was a bit of a letdown after The Butterfly Garden, The Summer Children brought the level of the trilogy back up again. Told from Agent Ramirez’s perspective this time, this installment really brought home the agony that working with abused children must bring, particularly for someone who experienced it herself. I liked Mercedes’ point of view, and her connection to the “subjects” is heartbreaking. Bloodied children keep showing up at Mercedes’ door, after an “angel” killed their abusive parents in front of them. The killer is clearly someone who was abused herself, and she trusts Mercedes to take care of these kids after she gets rid of their abusers. The identity of the killer this time is still pretty obvious (obfuscation is not the author’s strongest skill), but the rest of the plot is well done. There is a new addition to the team as well, so maybe the trilogy will be expanded? One can only hope.

Friday, June 15, 2018

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hiller


Georgina Shaw was involved with covering up the murder of her high school best friend, Angela, by her boyfriend, Calvin. When the truth comes to light years later, she goes to prison for five years for her role, and Calvin gets a life sentence but soon escapes. When it’s time for Geo to be released, more bodies start turning up, killed the same way as Angela, and it seems as though Calvin is on the hunt again and coming back for Geo. All is not as it seems in this suspenseful novel though. Told in alternating timelines between present day and the days leading up to Angela’s murder, the truth slowly and eerily unravels. Complicating matters is Geo and Angela's other best friend, Kaiser, who still carries a torch for Geo but was responsible for sending her to prison. Can they reconcile and move forward, or will Geo's past and her terrible deeds haunt her forever? The final ‘denouement’ is rather sad, with Geo having to make a heartbreaking but necessary decision. A worthy “summer” read!


Tuesday, April 3, 2018

The Good Liar by Catherine McKenzie

A gas line explosion takes down an entire office building in Chicago, killing over 500 people. One year later, the families of the victims are still trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. There’s Cecily, who was supposed to be there that day to meet her husband who worked there, but was running late and missed the explosion. She became the poster-child of the tragedy, thanks to a photographer, Teo, who happened to be there. While Cecily is the picture perfect grieving widow, her marriage was actually on the rocks and she feels like a fraud. Then there is Kate, who is connected to the disaster somehow, but living a new life in Montreal and trying (unsuccessfully) to forget her past. And then there’s Franny, a young woman who showed up at the funeral of one of the victims and declared herself the daughter that was given up for adoption, which no one knew about. She’s now moved into that woman’s house and is helping to take care of her two young girls, and her husband. Franny is a little “off,” but then, so are the rest of the characters in this book, with secrets galore and suspect motivations. What those are and how these women are all connected will keep you guessing until the very end, and even when you think you’ve figured everyone out there will be one last surprise for you. My favorite part were the interview transcripts between Franny and Teo, who is shooting a documentary about the tragedy. You can just see Franny squirming and working through her lies on the page. An excellent read!

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The Broken Girls is 2/3 psychological suspense and 1/3 ghost story, which, I’ll admit, is not my favorite genre. In fact, it would have worked just as well without the “ghost” parts, but it does add a creepiness to the storyline that might not have been there otherwise. It’s set in small-town Vermont, where a girl’s boarding school has sat empty for decades. Journalist Fiona Sheridan is somewhat obsessed with its locale, as this is where her sister’s murdered body was dumped 20 years ago. Fiona was 17 at the time, and the murder tore her family apart and seems to have kept her in limbo ever since, even though her sister’s boyfriend was tried and convicted of the murder. She keeps her police officer boyfriend at arm’s length, and when she learns that someone is renovating the old school she thinks it would be a good idea for her to investigate and write a story about it. Flashing back and forth between this timeline and the 1950’s, we learn that the girls at the school were all afraid of the ghost of Mary Hand, and that one of them, Sophia, is about to be murdered as well. Through her research on the school, Fiona discovers some clues to Sophia’s murder, and unearths some new information about her sister’s death as well. This book will suck you in, and the final dénouement is riveting, with or without the ghosts.

Friday, March 16, 2018

The Naturalist and Looking Glass by Andrew Mayne

Dr. Theo Cray is working on field research in Montana when a former student of his is killed by a grizzly bear, or so everyone thinks. Theo is not convinced, and he lends his considerable intellect to the task of finding the real killer. By approaching the task as a biologist and computer programmer, he sees a pattern of missing people in the state that reminds him of the predatory area of a great white shark. When he gets close to an area where he knows one girl went missing, he also realizes that he can tell where the dead bodies are buried. This leads to the rather gruesome task of Theo trying to dig them up in order to show the authorities that the killer is real. Fans of Andy Weir’s The Martian will appreciate the heavy-duty science Theo uses to “MacGyver” any number of situations, and he finds himself in many, let me tell you! There’s a side romance plot that seems a little like an afterthought, and a final get-the-bad-guy scene that’s right out of the movies. While there are thousands of books and series out there about cops, private investigators, or other law enforcement personnel chasing down the bad guys, it’s a nice change-up to have it be a nerdy science-guy instead. 

After successfully finding a serial killer that no one even knew existed, Dr. Theo Cray is in high demand. He’s working for a shadowy arm of the government, trying to find connections between suspected terrorists. He’s also being hounded by people who’ve lost loved ones, looking for answers where there seemingly are none. The sad eyes of a father missing his only son gets to Theo, and he’s on the case in L.A., looking for missing African American children with light-colored eyes. I’m happy to report that he escapes the physical trauma that beset him in the first novel, though this episode seems to take a more psychological toll. Expect more of the same solid pacing from Mayne’s first installment, along with Cray continuing to “science the shit” out of every situation. The ending did seem slightly far-fetched, and it left me a little sad for Cray – is he going down to the dark side? I’m looking forward to finding out in the third book.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Digging In by Loretta Nyhan

Paige and her teenage son Trey have had two years to deal with the unexpected loss of their husband/father, Jesse. Yet, understandably, they are stuck in a rut. Paige is trying to keep her act together, but after some stressful events at work she starts digging in her back yard, and doesn’t stop until she’s torn her entire lawn up. This one act opens her up to a variety of new experiences and people, including a young farmer named Mykia, her ornery neighbor, and a friendly police officer who makes her realizes that there are some parts of life that she’s missing out on.  There are some truly touching discussions about loss, change, and grief between Paige and Trey which felt completely authentic – it was not surprising to find out in the author’s notes at the end that she has gone through something similar herself. It is a surprisingly dry-eyed book though, given then subject matter, as it takes place long enough after the initial loss that the emotions are not so raw. There’s also the hilarious side-plot of her boss obsessing over a corporate self-help book and subjecting her and her co-workers to endless shenanigans. Overall it’s a funny and heartwarming read.  

Friday, March 9, 2018

The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth


Essie’s living a quiet life in suburban Melbourne. She suffered severe postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, and her husband and mother have been on edge since the birth of her second. Cracks are starting to show, and when a mysterious woman named Isabelle moves into the neighborhood, Essie becomes fascinated with her and goes a little Single White Female. Isabelle seems to be looking for a missing child, and thinks Essie might be involved. There’s some side plot drama with two other neighbors, Ange and Fran, (affairs, cuckolding, etc.) that help round out the narrative a bit, but the main, and weird, story is between Essie and Isabelle. It’s not quite full-on suspense, but the twist is interesting and it makes you question the limits and boundaries of human memory. Can we really forget that we did something terrible in a traumatic and psychotic state?

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

I'll Be Your Blue Sky by Marissa de los Santos

I’ll Be Your Blue Sky is the third installment from Marissa de los Santos about a large blended family. I haven’t read the first two, and while this book does still work as a standalone novel, it might be better to read the other two first if only to know who everyone is. (There is one dizzying paragraph that tries to explain how everyone is connected to each other, but it probably serves better as a reminder than a primer.) This installment features Claire, a young woman who’s about to marry an overly-possessive and easily-angered man, but is having seriously cold feet the day before her wedding. A chance meeting with an elderly woman, Edith, makes her call it off, only to find out a few weeks later that not only has Edith died, but she’s left Claire her beach house on the Delaware coast. This sets Claire off on an adventure, both to figure out what she wants out of love, and also what Edith was up to by leaving her the house. There are flashbacks to the 1950’s from Edith’s point of view, and we slowly learn that the two of them are more connected than just a chance meeting. While some might complain that the ending was too pat, I thought she tied it up nicely, and the whole book was quite beautifully written.   

Friday, March 2, 2018

My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd


Thirteen-year-old Venus suspects her stepdad is peeping at her, but her mom, Inez, is in serious denial and refuses to believe her or act on Venus’s suspicions. The next time he tries to do it, she shoots a bullet through his peep-hole, and after surveying the damage done to Ray’s head, she tells her mom “Good thing Raymond doesn’t peep at me.” Best line ever! This lands her six years in Juvie, and when she gets out she wants to have nothing more to do with her old self or her old name. She tries to reinvent herself in Seattle, but her past keeps crowding in, and she hasn’t really dealt with her lingering anger and guilt. Venus’s seven-year-old autistic half-brother, Leo, was kidnapped only days after his father’s murder, and remains missing all these years. Venus is estranged from Inez, who in the matter of a few days lost her entire family, and is also awash in her own guilt. Will they ever find Leo, and/or forgiveness?

I found Venus to be a compelling character, and you’ll be rooting for her to overcome her rough start as a teenager. The POV switches a lot between Venus, Inez, and the family that kept Leo, which keeps the pace moving. Your heart will also break for kids born like Leo, and the struggles that the people who love him go through. What I’m left confused about is why this book is categorized as general adult fiction. If John Green had written this book, we would be calling it YA with no question. But this “coming of age” story is not? Quibbles for sure, but I feel like this book is being pushed towards the wrong audience.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties by Camille Pagan

Maggie has been with her husband, Adam, for almost thirty years. They were college sweethearts who did the whole nine yards: marriage, two kids, a beautiful house in the suburbs and a cozy retirement pending. Then Adam comes home one day and drops a bomb into their supposedly happy life; he’s no longer in love with Maggie and wants out of their marriage. Not only did Maggie not see this coming, but she thinks it must just be a phase and tries to figure out how to get Adam back. When that proves utterly, and humiliatingly, futile, she pack her bags, first for a trip to Rome that they were supposed to take together, and then to Ann Arbor for a change of scene. Just when she is getting her life back on track, with new work possibilities and a new beau, Adam has a change of heart (attack) and wants Maggie back. Will she choose her previous, carefully planned out life, or her new and unpredictable one? This coming of (middle) age novel is full of the funny, laugh-out-loud moments I’ve come to expect from a Camille Pagan novel, with a relatable heroine who is trying to find her footing in a time of life when most people are securely planted. While I’m still a little shy of that phase of life, it was refreshing to have a (slightly) older protagonist in a women’s contemporary fiction novel.

Friday, February 23, 2018

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn


Sometimes the latest and greatest thrillers don’t live up to the hype, but that’s not the case for The Woman in the Window. It’s a taut and unpredictable story about a devastated woman who spends too much time spying on her neighbors and eventually sees something awful – or does she? Sure, there are some tropes involved: the wine, the gaslighting, etcetera, etcetera. In fact, I am kind of done reading about drunk, unreliable women, but if you want to read one last one before the genre goes belly up, this is the best of the recent crop for sure. Anna has been housebound for the last 10 months after a traumatic experience that also involved her husband and child leaving her. While she still speaks to them regularly, she is increasingly isolated in her Harlem house, and distracts herself by looking at the goings on outside, various online pursuits, and copious amounts of wine and psychotropic meds, which should not be mixed together. When a new family moves in across the way, she’s immediately drawn into their lives, seeing things she wasn’t meant to see. The first “reveal” as to why Anna suddenly developed a bad case of agoraphobia is no big surprise, nor do I think it was really meant to be – anyone paying attention will figure it out about 100 pages in, though the reveal takes another 100 pages or so to come. It’s the end game that you want to keep reading for, with a well-done twist that I didn’t see coming.  

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Killman Creek by Rachel Caine


Killman Creek picks up about a month after Stillhouse Lake leaves off. Mel Royal has yet to be caught since his escape from prison, and Gina/Gwen decides she wants to take the fight to him and get the heat off her children. She leaves them in the safety of Javier and Kezia, and takes off with Sam to hunt down Absalom and her ex. Unlike the first installment, which was told solely from her point of view, this one bounces between her, Sam, Lanni and Conner, giving us a little view into their thoughts and motivations. Gwen is getting so desperate for revenge, and for it all to be over really, that she’s willing to put herself out there as bait for one last chance to protect her kids. Sam is torn between his growing feelings for Gwen, and new evidence that makes it seem like she was complicit in Mel’s murders after all. Lanni is exploring her growing feelings for her best friend, and the possibility that her mom was lying to her all this time. And poor Conner is split between his limited understanding of his dad’s atrocities, and his old self, Brady, who has a deep longing for his father’s love and attention. That leads him to make a foolish choice, which brings all of Gwen’s careful preparations falling down. 

The pacing in this installment is fast, as Gwen and Sam gallivant around trying to hone in on the increasingly depraved reality of the Absalom group. The one thing I just can’t understand is why Absalom wants Gwen taken down so badly, but sometimes it’s best not to think too hard on these plot points! Not sure where the third book is going to go with the narrative, since things tied up quite nicely at the end, but hopefully it spares the kids any more trauma.

Friday, February 16, 2018

The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin

Doctors Zadie and Emma have been best friends for decades, weathering medical school together and something terrible that happened in their third year there. What exactly that was, and why it was so devastating, gets brought back up when their old friend Dr. Nick moves to Charlotte. With flashbacks between present day goings on in Charlotte, NC, and their medical school days in Louisville, KY, the picture starts to come into focus, until we’re left with the shattering truth. The descriptions of the medical aspects of this book are fantastic, from an emergency “cric” at the pool to endless trauma at the hospital – Kimmery Martin (a doctor) clearly knows her stuff and how to make it compelling, and also “humerus.” (chuckle) Something tells me that the more outrageous of the medical vignettes were probably real life experiences from her own training. As far as the plot drama goes though, the final explanation seemed a little awkward and not entirely plausible. Sure, good people do bad things sometimes, but I wasn’t left satisfied with the explanation. Read it for the medical drama, skim the relationship stuff.        

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Beneath the Water by Sarah Painter

Stella was born with a heart defect that was repaired at birth but caused her some serious issues as a young adult. A new valve gave her a new lease on life, but only partially so; she’s skimming through things, working as a temp, engaged to Ben, who is good but not perfect, as if in a reflection of her understanding of the shorter time she might have to live. When Ben dumps her (a typical start to any contemporary romance, sure) she heads off to coastal Scotland to visit her friends from Uni, Caitlin and Rob. They’re settled down and have a baby on the way, everything that Stella wants but has yet to achieve. Drawn in by the fresh air and beautiful scenery (and distance from her ex back in London) she tries to start over in the tiny village of Arisaig. The only one hiring is an eccentric best-selling novelist, Jamie Munro, who is far behind on his next deadline and needs a personal assistant. Romance blossoms (of course!) but so does a historical mystery and a revenge plot. There is a lot going on in this book! While it might be a hard read for some, since it is a little all over the place, I say just sit back and enjoy the ride. The characters are compelling, and while it could have used a little tightening up on the plot points towards the end (someone dies and yet there doesn’t seem to be any police involvement?) all in all it was a highly readable book. I enjoyed her last novel, In the Light of What We See, thought this one was even better, and will look forward to reading her next one.

Friday, February 9, 2018

Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine

If you can get over the initial premise of this book (husband Mel has created an abattoir in the garage where he tortures and kills women and his family is none the wiser until a car randomly plows into the house one day revealing all), then this is great read. Even the (now-ex) wife Gina/Gwen (she’s been on the run since she was cleared of any wrongdoing in the killings, because “how could you NOT know?” wonders how she could have not known. Now she has to worry about other people wanting to take their vengeance out on her, whether it’s internet trolls, family members of the victims, or her butcher-ex, who is still trying to exert his influence from prison. At first Gwen seems a bit paranoid, but when her worst fears start to come true and her fake identity has been compromised, we realize what real threats she and her children are under.  Even the remote community of Stillhouse Lake, Tennessee is no refuge, and when women start to turn up dead disposed of in the same manner as her husband once did, Gwen is under the microscope once again. This book isn’t for the faint of heart, but not overly gruesome either. And it does end on a cliffhanger, so that you’ll race to read the next installment, which I’m still not sure I want to do …

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

The Great Alone follows the Allbright family as they leave their peripatetic lifestyle in the lower 48 and move up to Alaska in the mid 1970’s. Ernt’s stint in Vietnam and five years as a POW have left him broken and abusive. Cora just can’t quit him – “There was a poison in him, and I drank it up.” – but is fiercely protective of their teenage girl, Leni. The whole family is hoping for a fresh start in Alaska, and at first it delivers it to them. The first half of the book is an engaging tale of what many families must have gone through when searching for a different lifestyle up in “the Great Alone.” But Ernt’s demons soon catch up to him, and the reader has to spend the rest of the book waiting to see what will go wrong, and just how bad it will be. Leni is constantly foreshadowing what is sure to come (“winter is coming,” literally), and I truly dislike books like this, as why should I invest in the characters when I know that bad things are going to happen to them?


When the sh%t does hit the fan, it’s one devastating event after another, each one getting more and more unbelievable. This could have been a beautiful book about so many things, and there’s no question that Hannah knows how to write well, but instead it just feels like a setup for tragedy so that it can have a “literary” label slapped onto it.  

Friday, January 26, 2018

Hearts of Resistance by Soraya M. Lane

Hearts of Resistance, by Soraya M. Lane, follows three women through the devastation of WWII as they fight against the Nazi’s across Europe. The first third of the book is one long extended recruiting montage (in a good way, as we get to know the characters and their motivations). Sophia is in love with a Jewish man, Alex, but that won’t go over well with her Nazi father. When Alex’s family is taken away, Sophia hides him in her Berlin apartment and helps ferry other Jews out of the city for months until she’s almost found out. She and Alex have to flee, and she vows to continue fighting the evil regime in any way she can. Rose lost her husband Peter to the war in France, and heads out to their house in Brest to find some comfort, but instead finds wounded Allied soldiers and the Resistance. Hazel is feeling confined by the expectations for women in Britain, and the desire to do more than just sit at a desk translating French documents. She signs up for a covert mission, and soon finds herself fighting alongside Rose and Sophia in France in the lead up to D-Day.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tale. The pacing was fast and exciting, and it was interesting to experience the war from a woman’s point of view. So many of the books and movies about WWII involve the men fighting (naturally), or the women pining back home and dealing with loss. It was refreshing to read about some ladies who were out there trying to make a difference, and interesting to learn that there really were woman doing all this, and more probably, in that time. 

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

The Roses of May by Dot Hutchison


This book picks up where The Butterfly Garden left off, sort of. The three musketeers, I mean, FBI agents, from book 1 are still there, and some of the Butterflies do make an appearance, though they’re not central to the plot. Instead we meet Priya, a seventeen-year-old whose sister was killed by a serial killer five years ago. The musketeers have been on the case since then, but can’t find the creep who keeps killing teenage girls in churches and laying different flowers around each one. Now it looks like he’s coming back for Priya, who is anything but fine even five years on. The writing is solid once again, but I have to knock it down a star for two reasons: the identity of the serial killer was SO obvious that it was almost insulting (a least make me question who it might be even once!) and that person’s age changed at least three times in the book. Late thirty-something, then late forty-something, but if I do the math he should be early thirties. Pet peeve sure but someone should have picked that up!

Friday, January 19, 2018

A Merciful Death, Truth and Secret by Kendra Elliot

Sometimes you find a series you like and have to wait months or even years between installments (I'm talking about you Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling). Thankfully, Kendra Elliot seems to be a prolific and fast writer, and she's been cranking out the Mercy Kilpatrick series. Set in rural central Oregon and featuring the Prepper community, it's a great 4-5 star series that's mostly murder/mystery with a dash of romance thrown in. Here's a recap of the three books so far.

In A Merciful Death, FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick returns to her childhood hometown to help solve a spate of murders in the prepper community, which just happens to be the type of environment she grew up in. Mercy left her family under bad terms and hasn't seen or spoken to any of them in fifteen years. needless to say, her return sparks a mixed reaction between her parents and her four siblings. The murderer is stealing weapons from the preppers, and Mercy is worried that her family is getting caught up in the investigation. There are some similarities to a couple of murders that happened fifteen years ago that precipitated Mercy's break with her family. Mercy barely touches her paramour-to-be in Book 1 of this series, but sparks do fly between her and Eagle's Nest police chief Truman Daly. The plot and timing are solid, and Kendra Elliot does a good job of explaining the mindset of the preppers without laughing at them.

A Merciful Truth picks up just two months after Book 1 – Mercy and Truman are getting closer, but Mercy still has her guard up. Kaylie, Mercy’s niece, has moved in with her after the death of her father, and also has a new love in her life, Cade, but life is not peaceful. Someone is setting fires around Eagle’s Nest and shooting at law enforcement officers, while strangers are coming into town and building up a militia. Mercy and Truman are on the case, which will hit close to home once again. Mercy's oldest brother Owen is involved with the "bad" guys, and blames her for the death of their brother Levi. Fast pacing throughout keeps the ball rolling and it’s a solid read.


For Book 3, A Merciful Secret, two more months have gone by again. Winter has arrived in the Cascades, and Mercy has just spent a long night working at her beloved cabin, preparing for whatever disaster might come. As she starts the long drive home at 3 am (does she ever sleep?!), a frightened young girl jumps out of nowhere and leads her back to her own isolated cabin, where her grandmother is dying from a horrific knife attack. While at first it seems like an isolated incident, after it’s connected to a similar but seemingly unrelated murder of a judge in Portland, the FBI is on the case. Was it the young girl’s mother, Salome? The judge’s son, Christian? And why does everybody know everyone anyways? (oh yeah, it’s a small town!) While the identity of the killer and the big “secret” was kind of obvious, I enjoyed the way Kendra Elliot pieced everything together, I’m still rooting for Mercy, and the end was pretty heartbreaking, so I must be invested in the characters.


Tuesday, January 16, 2018

The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White

Barbara Claypole White tackles the impossible in The Promise Between Us. She lets you into the mind of someone with obsessive compulsive disorder just enough to give you a realistic look at what their life must be like, and then reigns it back a little so that you don’t shut the book in dismay. Katie Mack abandoned her young daughter when she was just an infant as thoughts of harming her swarmed her mind. She thought the girl would be safer without her, and by the time she got treatment and found herself in a semi-stable state, her husband had moved on and told their daughter that she was dead. Over a decade later Katie randomly comes back into contact with her daughter, only to realize that her own mental illness was now manifesting itself in her daughter. Her attempts to help her and deal with her own continuing issues make up the bulk of the story.

Some books are easier to read than others. If you’re looking for a fluffy beach read for entertainment purposes, this is not it. But it is an important read, and a timely one. OCD has received some national attention lately, largely due to John Green’s novel about the disease and his admission that he suffers from it as well. If you want to understand more about it (guess what, it’s not just about compulsively washing your hands) and how it can destroy people and families (and build them back up again), then this is a must read.

Friday, January 12, 2018

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

In The Wife Between Us, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen take you on a wild roller coaster ride full of twists and turns. Vanessa and Richard’s marriage has fallen apart, and he’s dating a new (and younger) woman, whom Vanessa is stalking. Nellie is bright-eyed and excited for her future with Richard, but she has some lingering trauma from college and feels like someone is out to get her. While cleverly done, the first part of the book feels too similar to Girl On The Train somehow; woman is left by husband, is falling apart and drinking too much, and is following her ex and his new girl. The first twist takes it on a different course, which was well done, but by then end it’s almost one twist too many. 

There’s a lot of gaslighting going on in this book (definition per Wikipedia: a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief.) This is sort of trendy now I guess, but it does make me wonder – isn’t the whole psychological suspense genre with an unreliable narrator one big gaslight on the reader anyways? Something to ponder…

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Between Me and You by Allison Winn Scotch

Told in two timelines from two points of view, Between Me and You by Allison Winn Scotch is one of those “big concept” books. We get to see Tatum and Ben’s relationship from Tatum’s point of view move forward in a normal timeline, from meet-cute in a bar during college to their first kiss in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. In alternating chapters, we see Ben’s side of the story, but working backwards from their present-day separated status. What makes a seemingly perfect couple fall apart? The trappings of their Hollywood lifestyle and respective ups and downs in their careers doesn’t help (he’s a writer, she’s an actress), and somehow this feels like a behind-the-scenes peek at what many famous “It” couples must have gone through.

I love the idea of juxtaposing all the great parts of a relationship with all things that no longer work, and the execution of this concept was really well done. The one downside is that you have to relive some of the sadder parts of the story twice, such as 9-11 and the loss of a family member. All in all though it’s a great read, particularly if you’re fascinated by the "Brangelinas."

Friday, January 5, 2018

Tips for Living by Renée Shafransky

Nora Glasser is living a nightmare. Not only did her famous artist husband leave her for a younger (and more fertile) woman, but then they have the audacity to move to her small town and rub her nose in their happiness and wealth. Nora has to see them living their extravagant lifestyle with the daughter she always wanted, while she walked away with nothing, except a precious journal of sketches of her that her ex, Hugh, now wants back. Not even her Pilates class is sacred, as Hugh’s new wife, Helene, shows up to that too. So it’s no surprise that she fantasizes about doing them bodily harm, but when that actually happens in real life, Nora is suspect number one. To make matters worse, she can’t trust her own memory, and worries that she’s the one who committed the crime. Tips for Living leaves you wondering until the end: did she or didn’t she? This debut novel by Renée Shafransky is a fast-paced page turner with a satisfying (but unpredictable) end.

Monday, January 1, 2018

Not Perfect by Elizabeth LaBan

Have you ever faked your way through a day, pretending that everything was fine when you were really losing your mind? Now picture doing that for months on end, trying to keep up appearance while your whole life falls down around you. Such is the plot of Not Perfect by Elizabeth LaBan. Tabitha Brewer’s husband, Stuart, walked out on her a few months ago, leaving her alone with their two kids and without any income coming in. Tabitha hasn’t told anyone about her predicament, even her best friend, but as Stuart’s “business trip” gets extended longer and longer, the perfect façade starts to crumble. Tabitha’s children are struggling, she can’t seem to find a job, and she doesn’t even have the money to replace the burnt-out lightbulbs in the kitchen let alone put food on the table. Rather than admit that she is in serious trouble and ask for help, she starts stealing in random ways, and seems stuck in limbo, not knowing completely why he left and if he’ll ever be home.


The story has some hilarious plot pots (eating some marijuana edibles with an eighty-year old woman!), and some sad ones, but the overarching theme is what is really intriguing to me. As a woman and mom who tries really hard to keep her family functioning and her act together, I can relate as to how hard it is to ask for help, and how the pressure to keep everything perfect and high-functioning can often be overwhelming. LaBan nails that feeling on the head, and then reminds us that it is okay to be “not perfect.”