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.

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 …

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.  

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. 

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!

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.

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.