Mini Review: All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker

All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker

Published July 12, 2016

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis

In the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut everything seems picture perfect.

Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, prefers to pretend this horrific event did not touch her perfect country club world.

As they seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town - or perhaps lives among them - drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.

My Thoughts

This is one of those books that I’m really on the fence about. This is a brutally honest look about Jenny and following a night out partying she is raped. What we see is the aftermath of what happens. We are told the story through a person we don’t know at first but eventually, it is revealed who they are.

What I liked about this tale while it is very honest it can be hard to read at times. What I didn’t like was that we don’t know who is telling the tale and that really got on my nerves. I just couldn’t get into the story and to be honest, I was ready to give up on it a few chapters in. However,I give it a chance and the pace did pick up but by then I kind of checked out mentally.

I gave it 3 stars mainly because I liked the storyline more than I didn’t like it. Maybe in time I will revisit this read again and feel different one way or another. 

Mini Review: So Close by Emma McLaughlin & Emma Kraus

So Close by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Published: June 7, 2016

Published: Sparkpress

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Amanda Beth Luker has spent her whole life desperately looking for someone who can show her the way out of her trailer park Florida town. And then, finally, help arrives in the form of Tom Davis, a successful lawyer with political aspirations who grew up just a few towns over from Amanda. But it's his wife, Lindsay, who really captures Amanda's imagination. Strong, smart, and determined, she gives Amanda something she's never had: a role model. Meanwhile, Amanda is introduced to the wealthy, charismatic, and deeply troubled Pax Westerbrook. He clearly desires Amanda, but if she gives in will that move her closer to the life she's always dreamed of or make it impossible?

Amanda rides Davis's political success all the way to Washington, where he becomes Senator and will later be tapped for president and even makes a bid for the White House. But when Amanda starts to suspect, and later confirms, his moral indiscretions, her loyalty is tested. Will a girl from a trailer park even be believed if she goes public with damning information? Will she be willing to risk losing everything she's gained?

My Thoughts

So Close is the relatable tale of Amanda who hails from a small town and leaves for the chance of bigger and better things in life. Amanda meets the successful Tom Davis and in doing so lives the life she has always wanted for herself. She soon finds herself thrown into the political world and is soon introduced the mysterious Pax who has fallen for Amanda from the start. While she finds herself attracted she doesn’t want to mess up her new life and surely doesn’t want to go back to the trailer park so she doesn’t want to go there with him. She is enjoying this life but little does she know that privilege will ultimately come at a price. She soon finds out some info on Tom Davis but doesn’t want to lose this life that has basically fallen into her lap. She is torn by doing what’s right or keeping the life she has always wanted and has finally gotten.

So Close is the story of doing just about anything to achieve your goals and wanting a better life. And while we think we would do anything to achieve that sometimes we are put to the test and are pressured to decide what is more important to us, do we live life right or do we sacrifice our morals for the life of luxury. I love how Amanda is so relatable we all can know how it feels to want more in life. Even if you never lived in a small town we all know that desire to want a bigger life than the one we have. This is one read that can give you hope and one that shows us despite everything we can decide how our lives play out. We can be given opportunities it’s what we do with them that makes us who we are.

Mini Review: You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

Expected Publication: July 26, 2016

Publisher: Little Brown

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Katie and Eric Knox have dedicated their lives to their fifteen-year-old daughter Devon, a gymnastics prodigy and Olympic hopeful. But when a violent death rocks their close-knit gymnastics community just weeks before an all-important competition, everything the Knoxes have worked so hard for feels suddenly at risk. As rumors swirl among the other parents, revealing hidden plots and allegiances, Katie tries frantically to hold her family together while also finding herself drawn, irresistibly, to the crime itself, and the dark corners it threatens to illuminate.

My Thoughts

I’m a newbie when it comes to Megan Abbott books but after this one, I will seek out her previous novels. She gives us a look into the competitive world of gymnastics and its one that is breathtakingly amazing and one that it will make your head spin.

We meet Katie and Eric parents who have devoted their lives to making sure that their daughter Devon dreams will come true. In a world where years of hard work and dedication are determined in a matter of seconds, every competition is life or death. Their world is hit hard when an unspeakable death makes everyone if their community a suspect and we are shown that the unthinkable has happened. Could someone really kill another all in the name of competition?

Megan Abbott gives us a story that will draw you in and at the same time equally make you want you to turn away. I like the suspense of the read and how it is definitely a page turner. This is a who done it that will stay with you long after the last page is turned. It’s honest, mesmerizing and unlike anything I have read before, this is one read that belongs on everyone’s must read list.

Review: Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

Published: July 28, 2015

Publisher: MIRA
Challenge: 2015 SRC

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head…

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home.

Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface; Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.

My Thoughts

This is an emotional story of two women who have gone through hell and back but who have dealt with the aftermath in different ways. We meet Heidi who seems to have it all but who is going through things that she has buried deep within herself that she has never dealt with and that will slowly come to the surface in the most drastic way. She sees Willow who is a young girl with a baby daily on the train platform and has a soft spot for them and is determined to help them in any way possible. Heidi is the type who wants to help the world and everyone yet her personal life is in shambles. Her daughter doesn’t talk to her and her husband is focused on his career. She has made it her mission to help Willow and the baby no matter what her husband and daughter say but we later see she almost becomes obsessed and by the end we see why.

Willow is a girl who comes with excess baggage in more ways than one. We get the backstory on her life and we see how she goes from a family to a horrible foster family. She goes through things that no one much less a child has to go through yet she survives with the luck of a great friend. However ever since her family was torn apart she is determined to get some of it back but when she realizes she can’t she does something that might never be forgiven again.

This is the story of two women who are on the brink of disaster with twist and turns I never saw coming. I thought the story was going one way when I was thrown a curveball which I really thought made the story so much richer and definitely more unexpected which I love. This is one book that you will find more and more amazing as you read and peel back layers upon layers of storyline; it’s the ultimate gift that keeps on giving.

Review: Summer Secrets by Jane Green

Summer Secrets by Jane Green

Published: June 23, 2015

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Format: via BookSparks

Challenges: SRC 2015

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

June, 1998: At twenty seven, Catherine Coombs, also known as Cat, is struggling. She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. Her lunchtimes consist of several glasses of wine at the bar downstairs in the office, her evenings much the same, swigging the free booze and eating the free food at a different launch or party every night. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that.

June, 2014: Cat has finally come to the end of herself. She no longer drinks. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, to the gorgeous summer community where the women she once called family still live. Despite her sins, will they welcome her again? What Cat doesn’t realize is that these women, her real father’s daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone’s need for revenge.

My Thoughts

This book is amazing! This book focuses on addiction and how it not only affects your life but those all around you. Summer Secrets has a couple of storylines going on but nothing that’s too much or too confusing.

We meet Cat when she is young and partying and drinking way too much. She meets a nice guy one night and wakes up hungover at his place not knowing what happened and discovers he is a recovering alcoholic. He encourages her to go to meetings and she does but she doesn’t do it for herself but for him. One cannot truly get help unless they want it you can’t make someone do something they don’t want to do especially when they don’t think there is a problem.

We see how Cat’s childhood was growing up with a mom who was depressed and a father who wasn’t really a father. One day a few months after her father’s death her mom confesses he wasn’t her dad but that her father was an American she spent a romantic summer with back home. She thinks this is her chance to truly have a family and sets off to reunite with them in hopes of building a real family. She learns that her father also has a drinking problem and maybe it might be in her genes. She instantly connects to one sister and one night her drinking might have caused the one thing she wants so much to be lost forever. Not until years later while Cat is losing her husband and daughter does she decide she can’t live like this forever. She decides to become sober for herself and while in the process she must make amends with those she hurt the most. She must go back to America and reconnect with her sisters and ask for forgiveness for the hurtful things she did. While she thinks everything is forgiven she soon learns not everything is as is seems. Will she get what she came for or is revenge the ultimate payback?

This story was just so good! I felt so many emotions while reading; I hated then felt compassion for Cat. She was a true addict who loved her drinking more than anything else. But like they say you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves. This is a story of love, forgiveness and surviving. It gives you hope that anyone who has gone through so much in life can change, if you really want to and put all your soul and heart into it.  

Review: Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff

Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff

Published: April 21, 2015

Format: via BookSparks

Publisher: She Writes Press

Rating: 4/5

Add to Goodreads

Buy: Amazon / BN

Synopsis

Jennifer Sharpe is a divorced mother of two with a problem just about any working parent can relate to: her boss expects her to work as though she doesn t have children, and her children want her to care for them as though she doesn t have a boss. But when, through a fateful coincidence, a brilliant physicist comes into possession of Jennifer s phone and decides to play fairy godmother, installing a miraculous time-travel app called Wishful Thinking, Jennifer suddenly finds herself in possession of what seems like the answer to the impossible dream of having it all: an app that lets her be in more than one place at the same time. With the app, Jennifer goes quickly from zero to hero in every part of her life: she is super-worker, the last to leave her office every night; she is super-mom, the first to arrive at pickup every afternoon; and she even becomes super-girlfriend, dating a musician who thinks she has unlimited childcare and a flexible job. But Jennifer soon finds herself facing questions that adding more hours to her day can t answer. Why does she feel busier and more harried than ever? Is she aging faster than everyone around her? How can she be a good worker, mother, and partner when she can t be honest with anybody in her life? And most important, when choosing to be with your children, at work, or with your partner doesn t involve sacrifice, do those choices lose their meaning? Wishful Thinking is a modern-day fairy tale in which one woman learns to overcome the challenges and appreciate the joys of living life in real time."

My Thoughts

Wishful Thinking is a very different book than what I usually read but I actually liked it. It was just want I needed right now. It was different, funny and a breath of fresh air. Who hasn’t felt that they are being pulled in a thousand different directions and wished they could be at two places at once? Well Jennifer feels just like that and when she discovers that a time traveling app on her phone will make it possible. She becomes the person she always wanted to be she is suddenly super mom, girlfriend and the woman who has everything under control. While she feels that at the time she has everything going for her at some point something will have to give. Does she really want a life like this or eventually does she want to focus on one thing at a time and fully enjoy life as it is meant to be?

Sometimes we think we want it all but at some point we will realize that what we dreamed of isn’t what we really want. Life isn’t all about the big flashy things sometimes it’s the little everyday things that we will cherish the most in life. This book is a pure gem! So do yourself a favor and take a chance on a book that’s funny and quirky, it’s the perfect book to take to the beach or cuddled up in bed with and I promise you will be glad you did.

     About Kamy

Kamy Wicoff is the co founder of SheWrites.com, the world’s largest online community for women who write, and co founder, with publisher Brooke Warner, of She Writes Press. SheWrites.com and SheWrites Press were acquired in 2014 and are now part of the SparkPoint Studio family. Wicoff’s first book, the best-selling I Do but I Don’t: Why the Way We Marry Matters, was published by Da Capo Press in 2006. Her work has appeared in Salon.com, and has been anthologized in Why I’m Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does The Dishes (Hudson Street Press, 2006), and About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror (Seal Press, 2008). She serves on the board of Girls Write Now, a mentoring organization in New York City, and also formerly served on the Advisory Council for Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Wicoff lives in Brooklyn with her sons, Max and Jed.

Connect with Kamy:

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Blog Tour: New Uses for Old Boyfriends by Beth Kendrick

New Uses for Old Boyfriends by Beth Kendrick

Published: February 3, 2015

Publisher: NAL

Format: via BookSparks

Rating 4/5

Synopsis

After growing up in privilege and marrying into money, Lila Alders has gotten used to the good life. But when her happily-ever-after implodes, Lila must return to Black Dog Bay, the tiny seaside town where she grew up. She’s desperate for a safe haven, but everything has changed over the past ten years. Her family’s fortune is gone—and her mother is in total denial. It’s up to Lila to take care of everything...but she can barely take care of herself.

The former golden girl of Black Dog Bay struggles to reinvent herself by opening a vintage clothing boutique. But even as Lila finds new purpose for outdated dresses and tries to reunite with her ex, she realizes that sometimes it’s too late for old dreams. She’s lost everything she thought she needed but found something—someone—she desperately wants. A boy she hardly noticed has grown up into a man she can’t forget...and a second chance has never felt so much like first love.

My Thoughts

If you haven’t read a Beth Kendrick book drop what you’re doing and go read one or two or all! I’ve been lucky enough to read a few of her books and let me say they are the best. They are funny, cute and just the breath of fresh air that everyone needs in their lives.

In New Uses for Old Boyfriends she continues doing so. We meet Lila who has recently lost her job and her husband and is now in route back home to her mom after the recent death of her father. She goes home to Black Dog Bay and is thrown for a loop when she realizes her mother is knee deep in debt and must find a way to make her mom realize what trouble she is in. While all her mom wants is to spend more money and find Lila a new husband via some old high school flames. I love the relationship between Lila and her mother; although at times Lila is forced into the adult role I love how much they love each other and the banter between them. The other stars of the show are the background characters of Black Dog Bay. I love how quirky and funny they are!

What I love most about this book is how Beth Kendrick writes strong women leads. They might seem weak but they always come out on top. They never give up and despite all the heartache and heartbreak they endure they never give up on love. This read is all about making the most with the hardships life throws your way. So go and read her books…they are truly worth it!

 About the Author

Beth currently lives in Arizona and loves her dogs. She’s a Leo, a middle child, and a formidable Trivial Pursuit opponent. Reads everything she can get her hands on, from the classics to comic books.  She’s the writer of several books including Cure for the Common Breakup and Second Time Around.

Connect with Beth

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When Your World Falls Apart

Save Me by Kristyn Kusek Lewis

Published: December 30, 2014

Format: via BookSparks

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis

Daphne Mitchell has always believed in cause and effect, right and wrong, good and bad. The good: her dream job as a doctor; Owen, her childhood sweetheart and now husband; the beautiful farmhouse they're restoring together. In fact, most of her life has been good--until the day Owen comes home early from work to tell her he's fallen head over heels for someone else.

Unable to hate him, but also equally incapable of moving forward, Daphne's life hangs in limbo until the day Owen's new girlfriend sustains near-fatal injuries in a car accident. As Daphne becomes a pillar of support for the devastated Owen, and realizes that reconciliation may lie within her grasp, she has to find out whether forgiveness is possible and decide which path is the right one for her.

My Thoughts

I am so torn by this read. I loved the concept and thought it was going to be a fantastic read however I was just left feeling…nothing. Seriously? How is it possible to feel nothing when the story is about a woman who is left devastated after finding out her husband has been having an affair? I thought I would sympathize with her but sadly I was more annoyed than anything. I just honestly wanted her to make up her mind about forgiving him or not. In a sense I felt like Daphne, just like her I was flip flipping about how I felt about this book. It had the promise but in my opinion it was just a tad flat for me. 

Blog Tour Review: The Resurrection of Tess Blessing by Lesley Kagen

The Resurrection of Tess Blessing by Lesley Kagen

Published: December 9, 2014

Publisher: SparkPress

Format: copy via BookSparks

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

After she's diagnosed with breast cancer, forty-nine-year old Tess Blessing sets forth on a mission to complete her TO-DO List before, what she's sure is her impending death. She needs to make peace with her estranged sister, Birdie, scatter her mother's long-kept ashes, rescue her daughter, Haddie, from the grip of an eating disorder, guide her teenage son, Henry, through a bumpy adolescence, and reignite the spark in her almost thirty-year marriage to her husband, Will.

Tess is aided on her quest by narrator, Grace, who lends the story its most brilliant elements: subtle magical realism and deep psychological complexity. Is Grace an imaginary friend, guardian angel, or a part of Tess that knows better than she?

My Thoughts

Wow that’s all I can honestly say after I read this wonderful book.  I’m a huge fan of Lesley Kagen she writes in a way that is magical, heart wrenching and simply just gets down deep in your bones and this book just continues in the tradition in how I view her books.

This book is about Tess and once she is diagnosed with breast cancer how she is determined to tackle the issues in her life. I love she told hold of her life and didn’t let the cancer take her over. While this could’ve been a sad story I actually found it the opposite. I saw it as soul touching and uplifting not to mention funny, yes I said funny! Sometimes we have to just laugh at things if not we are just bound to sulk and cry and like they say sometimes laughing is the best medicine. I love how Tess is strong while she could’ve easily been weak, she chooses to try and fix her life when she could’ve easily give up, she is definitely one of my favorite characters I’ve read about in a long time. So PLEASE do yourself a favor and read one of the best books I’ve this year. It’s a touching tale that will make you cry and laugh all at the same time. Simply perfection!

Blog Tour: Stillwater Rising by Steena Holmes

Stillwater Rising by Steena Holmes

Published: November 11, 2014

Format: Copy via Booksparks

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Rating: 4/5
Buy the book: Amazon Kindle / Amazon Paperback

Synopsis

After losing her son in an elementary school shooting that devastates the tight-knit community of Stillwater Bay, Jennifer Crowne finds herself unable to settle back into her role of perfect stay-at-home mom and committee organizer. Meanwhile, her best friend, Mayor Charlotte Stone, struggles to keep the town together, and Charlotte s husband, the school principal, may not be the hero everyone thinks him to be.

As they try to heal from this irrevocable trauma, Jenn and Charlotte find themselves at a crossroads within the town and within their friendship. For Jenn, broken and grieving, there is no going back, and she demands that the school be closed so that she can bury the past. Yet Charlotte is equally desperate to hold the town together, fighting the school closure and helping the shooter’s mother regain her place in the community. Jenn and Charlotte s relationship is put to the ultimate test as each weighs her own interests against the bonds of their friendship.

My Thoughts

Talk about a touching story that will grip your soul! Stillwater Rising is the story of a community trying to recover after a recent school shooting. I love how in this story we get the points of view of the aftermath from different residents and how it affected them all differently. We hear from Jenn who has lost her youngest child and how certain people want her to move on, like her husband as if nothing has happened. There’s Charlotte the mayor who is trying to help and heal her town while trying to deal with her husband the principal of the school all while being pulled into different directions from the citizens, some want closure while others are mad and can’t seem to forgive. Lastly there is the shooters mom whom it seems has taken the most hits from people in town.

This story hits home with all the sadness that has taken place with school shooting around the country. While we always feel sad and heartache from the family victims, we sometimes forget about the shooters family. While what he did was horrible and unforgettable why are these people sometimes forgotten. I’ll be honest I’m one of those people who doesn’t really think of them after the tragedies. Don’t these people grieve just like all others? We tend to blame and look down on the parents when in actuality can we really blame them? No one has control over anyone else; sadly putting the blame on others doesn’t help in what happened.

No matter how you feel about the subject there is no denying that this book will touch you no matter what. The bottom line isn’t blame or hate what I took away is forgiveness and compassion. Although it is easier said than done no hurt is greater than another. I’m a strong believer in forgiving not so much for others but for you.  You will never be able to move on without forgiving. I can’t say enough great things about this book even though it’s a tough subject matter it’s one that’s poignant in the world today.  

     About the author
With a passion for storytelling, Steena Holmes took her dream of being a full-time writer and made it a reality, writing her first novel while working as a receptionist. She won the National Indie Excellence Book Award in 2012 for her bestselling novel Finding Emma. Steena currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, with her husband, three daughters, and two dogs. She likes to celebrate completing each new novel with chocolate.

Connect with the author
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Review: Mating for Life by Marissa Stapley

Mating for Life by Marissa Stapley

Published: July 1, 2014

Format: copy via Booksparks

Publisher: Washington Square Press

Rating 4/5

Buy the book: Amazon kindle/ paperback

Synopsis

With pitch-perfect honesty and heartwarming humor, this captivating debut explores marriage, motherhood, identity, and what it takes to love someone—family members, friends, or spouses—for life.

Former folk singer Helen Sear was a feminist wild child who proudly disdained monogamy, raising three daughters—each by a different father—largely on her own. Now in her sixties, Helen has fallen in love with a traditional man who desperately wants to marry her. And while she fears losing him, she’s equally afraid of abandoning everything she’s ever stood for if she goes through with it.

Meanwhile, Helen’s youngest daughter, Liane, is in the heady early days of a relationship with her soul mate. But he has an ex-wife and two kids, and her new role as a “step-something” doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Ilsa, an artist, has put her bohemian past behind her and is fervently hoping her second marriage will stick. Yet her world feels like it is slowly shrinking, and her painting is suffering as a result—and she realizes she may need to break free again, even if it means disrupting the lives of her two young children. And then there’s Fiona, the eldest sister, who has worked tirelessly to make her world pristine, yet who still doesn’t feel at peace. When she discovers her husband has been harboring a huge secret, Fiona loses her tenuous grip on happiness and is forced to face some truths about herself that she’d rather keep buried.

Interweaving the alternating perspectives of Helen, her daughters, and the women surrounding them, “each new chapter brings a wise and tender look at single life, dating rituals, and marital unease” (New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Close). In this “absolute feat of storytelling” (bestselling author Grace O'Connell), Marissa Stapley celebrates the many roles modern women play, and shows that even though happy endings aren’t one-size-fits-all, some loves really can last for life.

My Thoughts

Mating for Life is told through the voices of Helen and her three daughters. The theme throughout this novel is love. How to get it, keep it or let it go for something that might be truer out there. I love that we get to see how each female sees love. Some are afraid and some are always searching for something more.

As I was reading it I was definitely seeing how their mother Helen’s relationships might have shaped her daughters view of love. While Helen is so carefree in so many aspects of her life when it comes to love she is so cut off emotionally. She is free as far as sexually but love and commitment is where she fails. I can see why her daughter’s views of love are all over the place. Can one blame them? One can’t blame them for craving the stability of love and family or it can go the other way for instance being totally uncommitted. This is a story that is beautifully written and grabs you with the tales of how each daughter deals with lives. A great study on relationships especially about love or the fear of it, it makes one wonder if the whole nature vs nurture debate is true. Can ones views on the subject come just naturally or are our views subjected to wavier on what we see?

  About the author

Marissa Stapley is a National Magazine Award nominated writer and former magazine editor whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Elle Canada, and many others. Mating for Life (Atria Books; Simon & Schuster Canada) is her first novel. When Marissa is not writing, she’s reading. (In fact, she never goes anywhere without a book. Except maybe swimming.) Some of her favourite authors are Meg Wolitzer, Julia Glass, Alice Munro, John Irving, Lauren Groff, Margaret Atwood and James Salter. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two children, where she teaches writing, and is working on another novel.

Connect with the author

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Review: After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Published: July 1, 2014

Publisher: Washington Square Press

Format: copy via Booksparks

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.

My Thoughts

**ATTENTION I FOUND A NEW AUTHOR TO OBSESS OVER**

Seriously I love this book and author so much I ordered her previous novel just pages into this novel. Honestly when I read the concept that Lauren and Ryan were going to take a year off of their marriage to figure things out I wasn’t so sure how this would pan out. Okay so I had my theories on how I thought things would work out and trust me it wasn’t positive. The fact that so many things could’ve happened such as falling in love with someone else, I couldn’t see this ending in a good way.

In the very beginning Lauren cant handle things and she logs into Ryan's emails while there she sees Ryan has written drafts of emails and she checks them out. There are emails to Lauren in them he tells her things he felt he could never tell her. While at first she gets mad but eventually she starts to see things from his eyes. She began to realize how they both took things for granted. She realized how he saw her and most importantly how she saw him. She starts writing her own emails at first they are very mean but slowly but surely they turn emotional. She soon stops seeing how he is doing and starts to focus on her own well being.

I loved the journey that Lauren takes. She takes this time to focus on herself and in the process she becomes closer to her family as well. Although this book is about a marriage, bottom line it all boils down to communication, work and effort. Everyone seems to love the ideal of love but love and attraction is the easy thing. Marriage takes work and effort if you don’t put the work in it can all fall to the wayside in a blink of an eye. However at the same time you have to want to put the effort in. If you don’t than there are bigger issues. But sometimes things are definitely worth fighting for. This book shows us that marriage isn’t perfect that sometimes you have to step back and if your love is strong enough nothing can break that bond. This is hands down one of fave reads of the year. It’s funny, witty, emotional and makes you see life and love in all it’s grit and glory. Taylor Jenkins Reid takes you on a ride on that you soon won't forget.

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline by Rainbow Rowell 

Published: July 8, 2014

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Format: via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems besides the point now.

Maybe that was always besides the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

My Thoughts

This book is all about Georgie and her rethinking the outcome of her life. With a little help from a “magical” landline phone she starts to wonder if this is really how her life should be or if she should redo how things played out years ago.

Georgie is TV writers who with her best friend Seth are partners. She decides to back out on the last minute and not go with her family to a planned trip for Christmas. However in the meantime she starts to think she is losing her mind when she finds herself at her mother’s house and calls her husband on the landline. When she talks to him she finds out that she isn’t talking to her husband but her boyfriend. That is she is talking to her soon to be husband back when they were still in college. Sounds confusing? Surprising not really. We learn of Georgie and Neal’s backstory, how they meet, how she falls for him and how Neal had a fiancée when they started talking.

I just really liked the character of Georgie, how she is flawed and how she struggles with having both a family and career. She feels guilty because she wants a career but also knows she is in a sense losing her family. She knows Neal wants and deserves more and also knows her daughters are way closer to their father than her. Like all Rainbow Rowell books there is a great cast of characters. I loved Georgie’s interactions with her sister Heather and her mom. Not to mention her daughters seem very cute and hilarious. I’m on the fence as far as Seth goes, he seems so selfish to me.

However what I loved most was this whole idea if you could go back and change your past/future would you. I’m a strong believer in you can’t just change one thing, if you do everything will change. One thing can alter your life. I loved how all of this showed Georgie what she was missing. She realized that while she was succeeding in one aspect in her life she was failing in another. She had to decide what she truly wanted and if in fact she really wanted it. All in all this is another gem from Rainbow Rowell. One that will make you think if the things you want out of life are really important in the big scheme of things. 

Review: The Witch of Belladonna Bay by Suzanne Palmieri

The Witch of Belladonna Bay by Suzanne Palmieri

Published: May 13, 2014

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Format: via NetGalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy: Amazon for Kindle / Paperback 

Synopsis

It’s the trouble you aren’t expecting that gets you. And it’s all around you, Bronwyn; it’s all around you like the air.…

Bronwyn "BitsyWyn" Whalen hasn’t set eyes on the red dirt of Magnolia Creek, Alabama, for fourteen years—not since her mama died. But with her brother, Patrick, imprisoned for the murder of her childhood best friend, and her eccentric father, Jackson, at his wits’ end while her eleven-year-old niece, Byrd, runs wild, Bronwyn finds herself once again surrounded by ancient magnolia trees and the troubled family she left behind. She becomes immersed in a whirlwind of mystery and magic as she tries to figure out what really happened that fateful night her friend died. And as her bond with Byrd deepens, Bronwyn must face the demons of her past in order to unravel her family’s uncertain future. In Suzanne Palmieri's thrilling new novel, The Witch of Belladonna Bay, readers will learn if love and magic are enough to bring a broken family back together.

My Thoughts

I’ve always been that type of person who believes that there is something more out there. By that I mean I never doubt the unknown. Sometimes there are things that can’t be explained and just are. This is why I really enjoyed The Witch of Belladonna Bay; it has love, family, mysteries and magic. Yes I said magic and by that it’s really just that whole aura of something else out there, however it’s not that spooky kind of scary but more mysterious.

It’s the story of Bronwyn and her return to her hometown to deal with the aftermath of her brothers’ arrest for killing her best friend. She hasn’t been home since her mother died and has never met her niece. She has this ability that she got from her mom and she doesn’t like it. She ran away after her mom died of basically an overdose and her dad isn’t any better since he’s an alcoholic.

She came back home to find the real reason and person who killed her old friend. There are a couple of people who could’ve done it. There’s her brother who was seeing her friend, Bronwyn’s ex who is her friends step brother and even her niece Byrd. Byrd is one of my favorite characters in this story. She has an ire of mystery to her; she has this magic as all the females in the family seen to have but her abilities seem to run the strongest. She sees things and can talk to dead people. While people in the small town love her they are also scared of her.

Wyn’s homecoming also has her having to deal with ghost of her mother. They never had the greatest of relationships. Wyn felt her mom loved her addiction more than her and her brother while her mom knows that she let the drugs take over her life. Her mother can’t rest until she tries to make up for her mistakes.

What I really enjoyed was the whole who done it. I love a good mystery, and this one has layers upon layers. Just when you think you figured something out, something surprises you. I LOVE IT!

Although this was a bit unconventional of a read for me it’s one I’m so glad I read. It’s a beautiful story and I love the whole family aspect of it. Nothing is more important than family rather good or bad they are the core of who we are. To mend the fractured pieces could be the start of a beautiful thing. This is one book that casts a wonderful spell of a tale that I know you will enjoy.

          About the author

Suzanne Palmieri Hayes is the author of The Witch of Little Italy and The Witch of Belladonna Bay. She is also the co-author of I’ll Be Seeing You under the name Suzanne Hayes. She lives by the ocean with her husband and three darling witches. She is currently hard at work on her next novel. 

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