Review: Me before You by JoJo Moyes

Me before You by JoJo Moyes

Published: December 31, 2012

Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of color. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

My Thoughts

This is the most gut wrenching and beautiful thing I’ve read in a long time. This is the story of Will who has everything happening for him, he is living the most amazing life but all that comes to an end one day when he is involved in an accident. His fast pace carefree life is gone when he is left paralyze and now he thinks he has nothing to live for.

Lou is a quirky girl who lives at home with her crazy family and is searching for a job when she gets a job being Will’s caretaker/companion. When she first meets Will he is depressed and withdrawn and doesn’t want anyone or anything anymore. In time Lou is determined to make Will come out of his shell and want to enjoy life again. She wants to show him he can enjoy some of the things he loved in the past just in a different way.

During the course of a few months Will and Lou form a bond that is unbreakable and maybe have even fallen in love. But when Lou discovers the real reason she was hired it breaks her heart. Will’s intentions while heartbreaking sends Lou’s life in a tail spin, she loves him too much to stand by and accept it but on the flip side she loves and cares for him too much to not accept his wishes.

What I love so much about this book was how it was just so beautifully heartbreaking. It begs us to ask ourselves if we love someone do we accept something we find so outrageous for their benefit or can we really stand ground in our own beliefs? In the end I went with the simple notion that love does conquer all. When you love someone you will do whatever they want over your own wants. This is one book that will touch your soul like no other and one that demands to be devoured like the sweet treat it is.

Review: Steal the North by Heather Brittain Bergstorm

Steal the North by Heather Brittain Bergstorm

Published: April 10, 2014

Publisher: Viking Adult

Format: via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

A novel of love in all its forms: for the land, for family, and the once-in-a-lifetime kind that catches two people when they least expect it

Emmy is a shy, sheltered sixteen-year-old when her mom, Kate, sends her to eastern Washington to an aunt and uncle she never knew she had. Fifteen years earlier, Kate had

abandoned her sister, Beth, when she fled her painful past and their fundamentalist church. And now, Beth believes Emmy’s participation in a faith healing is her last hope for having a child.

Emmy goes reluctantly, but before long she knows she has come home. She feels tied to the rugged landscape of coulees and scablands. And she meets Reuben, the Native American boy next door.

In a part of the country where the age-old tensions of cowboys versus Indians still play out, theirs is the kind of magical, fraught love that can only survive with the passion and resilience of youth. Their story is mirrored by the generation before them, who fears that their mistakes are doomed to repeat themselves in Emmy and Reuben. With Louise Erdrich’s sense of place and a love story in the tradition of Water for Elephants, this is an atmospheric family drama in which the question of home is a spiritual one, in which getting over the past is the only hope for the future.

My Thoughts

Steal the North is a slow paced [in a good way] novel told to us by alternating characters. I personally like this style mainly because I feel like we get an insight to how each person is feeling and reacting to the other characters. I enjoy how through these characters the story is beautifully woven together.

It’s a story of family, loss, love and religion and how everyone is trying to deal secrets and come to terms with the aftermath. Emma is a teen who from recent events finds out her mother has lied to her, her entire life. She was told she had no family and her father was dead. When she finds out that it was all a lie she is sent to spend the summer with her aunt whom she has never met. Emmy is brought their by the church's urging since they feel a “virgin” could help her aunts pregnancy. Little does anyone know Emmy isn’t one. She struggles to become close with the family she does not remember, while her aunt is so happy with joy as she is reunited with her niece whom she helped raised when she was a baby. While there she has meets a guy, Reuben, whom is instantly taken by her. Through him we learn his story and that of his Native American culture. It's all set in the beautifully described Washington State background.

What I loved most about this engaging read were the rich characters. I loved how each one had a great story to tell and the universal message was love. Wither it be good or bad the reasons and things they ultimately did was in the name of love. Love for each other, their beliefs and their culture. And while this book has a message of religion it’s not forced upon you like some other books do. This book has a range of emotions that I think will satisfy many people, it’s an easy and thought provoking book that once you get started you won’t be able to put down.

Review: The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow

The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow

Published: June 13, 2013
Format: Finished copy via publisher
Publisher: Viking
Rating: 3.5/5

Summary via Goodreads

Georgia Waltz has things many people only dream of: a plush Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park, a Hamptons beach house, valuable jewels and art, two bright daughters, and a husband she adores, even after decades of marriage. It’s only when Ben suddenly drops dead from a massive coronary while training for the New York City Marathon that Georgia discovers her husband—a successful lawyer—has left them nearly penniless. Their wonderland was built on lies.

As the family attorney scours emptied bank accounts, Georgia must not only look for a way to support her family, she needs to face the revelation that Ben was not the perfect husband he appeared to be, just as her daughters—now ensconced back at home with secrets of their own—have to accept that they may not be returning to their lives in Paris and at Stanford subsidized by the Bank of Mom and Dad. As she uncovers hidden resilience, Georgia’s sudden midlife shift forces her to consider who she is and what she truly values. That Georgia may also find new love in the land of Spanx and stretch marks surprises everyone—most of all, her.

 Sally Koslow’s fourth novel is deftly told through the alternating viewpoints of her remarkable female protagonists as they plumb for the grit required to reinvent their lives. Inspiring, funny, and deeply satisfying, The Widow Waltz explores in a profound way the bonds between mothers and daughters, belligerent siblings, skittish lovers, and bitter rivals as they discover the power of forgiveness, and healing, all while asking, what is family, really?”

My Thoughts

The Widow Waltz is a tale of a widow whose life is turned upside down after the sudden death of her husband. Georgia Waltz and her daughters lived a very comfortable life, however while dealing with the aftermath and settling her husbands will she is dealt another unbelievable blow. He left her virtually penniless. While trying to find out what all he was doing with their money she finds out something she could never imagine…her adoring husband was having an affair. While I won’t spoil the book for you, the book continues with how she deals with these new found revelations and other things you can’t believe.

I enjoyed the storyline and the cast of characters. It explores how one learns to deal with the things that life throws are way. Showing how no matter how bad you think you have it, it all eventually gets better and you become way stronger than you could ever have predicted.

This is a wonderfully written story of hope, family and most important self-discovery, which allows us to know that we aren’t alone when life throws us obstacles.