5.31.2016 - Cruel Beautiful World

Thanks to NetGalley, Algonquin Books, and the author for the opportunity to read this wonderful novel!!

I fell in love with all these characters (save one) and raced through this book. The author's beautiful writing made each one seem alive in their thoughts and feelings.

The sisters, Charlotte and Lucy, are suddenly orphaned and sent to live with an elderly relative they never met, Iris. Iris puts aside all her previous plans and dreams and becomes a mother to these girls. Charlotte, the oldest, is studious and has big plans for her future, while Lucy is more of a free-spirit. However, when Lucy tries on a grown-up life at the tender age of 16, she discovers it's not all she bargained for.

This novel explores the back story of all the characters so that you really feel who they are and why they made the choices they did. I really fell into this novel and didn't want to come out!

Don't miss it - just a wonderful book!

5.29.2016 - My Girl

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for allowing me to read and review this book. This is why I love NetGalley - I would never have known about this author or book without it - and it would have been my loss!

What an intense psychological thriller - you won't see all the twists and turns coming, which of course makes for a great read.

Paige is drowning all her sorrows in a blurry mix of alcohol and drugs. And she has many sorrows to drown - her daughter was murdered years ago and she just found her husband dead by suicide. Her family tries to help - her dad, her brother and her in-laws - but she keeps going down her path of destruction.

To top it all off, everyone now thinks she's crazy - she keeps finding things disturbed in her home. She blames her mother-in-law and calls the police, but with no evidence, she has to wonder if she really is crazy.

That's all I'm saying because you need to just carve out some time and go along this ride!

5-28-2016 - Results May Vary

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This is the story of Caroline, happily married to her high-school boyfriend for 13 years. She finds out information about him that lead her to question every part of her life. Can anyone really be trusted forever? Do we really know people as well as we think we do? How well do we know ourselves?

After Caroline's life is turned upside down, she has to face lots of facts. Her younger sister, Ruby, and long-time friend, Jonathan, are there to help her through. She even wades into the dating pool.

I loved the quotes that opened each chapter - and liked seeing how they related to the chapter's subject. I really liked the characters and learning about the museum and art world a bit too.

5.27.2016 - The Singles Game

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This is definitely a great book to pack on your summer vacation - I loved reading about the behind-the-scenes world of professional tennis.

Charlie (Charlotte) is a young tennis player who has always excelled and done so being the good girl - always kind to opponents and everyone else. After a devastating injury, she leaves behind the coach that was a second mother to her after her own mother's death and turns to a mean, cutthroat coach who promises to push her from being ranked in the 20s of professional women tennis players to the top. But along the way, she must make some decisions that she's not always comfortable with.

The only thing that was a little disrupting in the flow of the writing to me was how Charlie's dad was always referred to as Mr. Silver. Just seemed a little odd.

But again - a light, fun read that you will enjoy! Plus, it's fun to read about the jet-setting world of expensive hotels and no holds barred of the professional athletes in today's world.

5.24.2016 - In the Clearing

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Why haven't I read this author before? This is the third in a series of crime stories featuring Tracy Crosswhite, a detective in Seattle. You can certainly read and enjoy this book as a stand alone, but I'm sure having the background would make it even better. I definitely plan to go back and read the first 2!

There are basically two crimes to solve in this book - the main one being a cold case from 40 years ago involving the death of a young Indian girl. It was investigated by a brand new police officer who couldn't let the case go. After his death, his daughter finds the file and asks Tracy to take a look at it. The other crime is one that Tracy is investigating in her job as a member of the Violent Crimes Section known as the A Team. In that case, a man is shot inside the home of his estranged wife and son.

I thought the writing was excellent as well as the meticulous details presented concerning the cases. Sure makes you appreciate the work that good crime solvers do.

This was a great story and I totally lost myself in these two cases. I can't wait to read the previous books as well as the future ones in this series. Bravo!

5.20.2016 - Watching Edie

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This was a great psychological thriller - I raced through it! The story is told in two time periods...Before and After. In the Before...Edie and Heather are schoolmates - Edie is the popular, wild child while Heather is the studious one that has always been made fun of by the others. Heather quickly becomes obsessed with Edie and wants to be her only true friend. Edie meanwhile becomes obsessed with a boy - one much wilder than her.

In the After timeframe, Edie is now in her early 30s, pregnant, working as a waitress and has no one for help and support. Heather enters back into her life just when Edie needs her. But what are the motives?

No more from me to possibly ruin the story - but you won't be disappointed!

5.19.2016 - Invincible Summer

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher (Little, Brown & Company) and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I really enjoyed this book - it's the story of 4 inseparable friends from Bristol University. After they graduate, they have to forge new adult relationships and roles as well as maintain their friendship throughout.

Eva was raised by a socialist father which probably influenced her decision to join the banking world. Benedict is from a wealthy family and stayed on to get his PhD after graduation. Eva's best friend, Sylvie, and her brother, Lucien, complete the foursome. The story is told in chapters that progress from graduation to current time, following each of the friends' lives and relationships.

This would be a great book club read - I thought that each of the characters were written well and there was a lot of emotion that you could really feel throughout the book. It's a story of growing up, dealing with life's turns, disappointments, challenges and being true to yourself and your friends.

5.17.2016 - The Versions of Us

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book!

This is kind of a tough one for me to review - I really liked the book but I have to admit that it was a difficult read for me. Not difficult subject matter, but it was just hard to keep everything straight. I loved the premise of the book and really liked the characters - sometimes I wish I would have taken notes. I kept telling myself before every chapter...in Version 1 these characters are married, these are the children, this is their path.

That being said, this book is written in 3 different versions or life paths that the characters could have taken. So it starts in 1958 with the main characters, Eva, Jim and David. Their lives intersect during their college years. Then the story proceeds to 2014, with each chapter marked by either Version 1, 2 or 3 as well as the date and location. Whew.

Such a creative mind that wrote this book - I wondered if she wrote each version separately from beginning to end, or wrote it as it is presented. I almost want to go back and reread each version alone! Very thought-provoking to think of all the ways our lives could change depending on the decisions we make at each juncture.

5.15.2016 - Untethered

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I loved Julie Lawson Timmer's first book, Five Days Left, so I was very anxious to read her latest. While I probably didn't love it as much as her debut, it was still a great read.

Char left a job she loved and a city she loved living in (Washington DC) when she met an engineer who lived in Mount Pleasant MI. Bradley had a small daughter when they met and Char became the main mother figure in Allie's life. Her biological mother left the family and moved to California and was definitely not interested in mothering Allie other than occasional visits.

When Bradley dies suddenly in a car accident, everything changes. Now Char feels like she's not even a stepmom to Allie, now 15, and legally has no rights to parent her. Her biological mother, Lydia, enters back into the picture and wants Allie to move to California. There is another plot involved in this book - Morgan, a 10-year-old who has bounced around various foster homes, who Allie tutors and develops a close bond with.

There are lots of realistic feelings about stepfamilies and would be a great book club pick - what truly constitutes a family?

I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

5.12.2016 - Before the Fall

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book!

This book deserves all the hype its gathering - definitely put it on your summer to read list!

The book involves a group of people who board a private plane from Martha's Vineyard headed to a small airport outside NYC. The plane is owned by a media mogul whose wife and two small children are with him. Along for the ride are their friends, a Wall Street executive about to be indicted for money laundering and his wife; a body guard, the plane's crew, and a down-on-his-luck painter. Sixteen minutes later, the plane crashes into the ocean. Only the painter and the 4-year-old boy survives.

Then the mystery sets in - what caused the plane to crash? Mechanical or pilot error? Or was it murder because of the wealthy passengers? Did the painter have something to do with it?

The story is told in chapters dealing with the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of all the passengers.

Also at play are bigger issues - people's rights to privacy and how that relates to the media's rights to tell a story.

This is a blockbuster novel - it's hard to put down once you start it. Highly recommended!    

5.8.2016 - The Blue Bath

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book!

This was a beautifully written story - the descriptions of Paris and London made you feel that you were there. You could see the artist's paintings and feel the passion.

This is the story of Kat, now a stay-at-home mom to Will, wife to Jonathan who owns a huge start up company that made them rich and famous. At a gallery showing, Kat sees paintings of herself done by a lover she had in Paris when she was a student at the Sorbonne. Despite her best intentions, she meets up with the artist, Daniel. While at first worried about the publicity lest anyone recognize her in these paintings, she soon finds herself back in a relationship. But at what cost?

This is a novel of beautiful words and pictures but the story moves forward through love and loss and keeps you intrigued in the story.

5.6.2016 - Vinegar Girl

Thanks to NetGalley, Crown Publishing and Anne Tyler for allowing me to read this book!

I love Anne Tyler's book and this one was no exception. It was a fun, easy read - a modern day retelling of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

Kate is the oldest daughter of a "mad" scientist who works out of a lab at Johns Hopkins. Since Kate's mother is deceased, Kate has become the one who holds the family together and keeps the dad's weird peculiarities and rules for the home and her younger sister, Bunny. Bunny is the opposite of Kate - where Kate is serious, a loner, the "shrew," Bunny is flighty, cute, into boys.

Enter Pyotr - her dad's research assistant. He's on a visa that is getting ready to expire and her dad is desperate to keep him. So he comes up with the idea that Pyotr and Kate can get married.

It's a fun read - there are some laugh-out-loud moments and you can just picture these people and events from Anne Tyler's descriptions.

Highly recommended!

5.5.2016 - 67 Shots

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Having lived in NE Ohio with a son who attended Kent State University, I was anxious to read this book. I chose to read it over the anniversary date just for more added symbolism. I've stood in the parking lot where the memorials to the dead students are and could only imagine the loss that the parents of those 4 must have felt.

This book added lots of info that I didn't previously know - I was unaware of all the violence that happened in downtown Kent the weekend before. No one will ever have definitive answers for what happened on May 4th, but this book lays it out on all sides and ends up with the fact that we need to forgive in order to move on.

Well worth the read. I wish it would have had pictures - and the final version may indeed have them since I read an advanced copy. I found myself reading with my tablet nearby to look at maps, pictures, stories online.

5.3.2016 - North of Here

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book!

This book really drew me in to the characters. The story revolves around Miranda - daughter of a well-to-do-family that has a summer home in the Adirondack Mountains. A series of tragedies in the family leaves Miranda feeling unmoored - she feels like she has no clear direction in her life, no thoughts of her future, no real feeling of self-worth.

Dix is a long-standing community person - known for always being there to help others. Of course, he takes Miranda under his wing and tries to help her out and ends up falling in love.

Enter Darius - basically another rich kid not from the area who settles in the mountains with no clear path except escaping from his parents and society's expectations. He ends up building a commune of sorts in the mountains which Miranda becomes drawn into.

This story really captivated me. Of course, partly because I live in the Adirondacks and love reading stories that take place here, but mostly because of these characters.

A really good read - would be a good book club pick because these characters have very many layers that would be fun to discuss.

5.1.2016 - A Year of Being Single

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This is a perfect book to grab and take to the beach, or just sit and read and wish you were at the beach!

Three close friends and neighbors decide to make a pact to swear off men for a year. Imogene keeps picking the wrong men; Grace's husband had an affair; Frankie couldn't take her messy life with her husband and 4 kids for one more minute. What follows is just a fun story of each friend somehow breaking their pact. A reminder that the grass isn't always greener!

A fun summer read in the vein of Diary of Bridget Jones. There's something about the English vernacular that makes these books even better!