9.25.2017 - Best Day Ever

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this deliciously creepy book - I loved it!

Paul and Mia are a seemingly perfect couple, with 2 adorable boys. They live in the best Columbus suburb and have a second vacation home on Lake Erie. He promises Mia the best day ever - a special romantic getaway weekend to their lake cottage.

The tale is told from Paul's viewpoint and he is talking to you, the reader. To me, things that he said were spot on but I feel that a review of this book should not give even a hint of what is to come! I couldn't put this one down!

9.20.2017 - Superhero Sewing

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

What a fun book of ideas for parents or grandparents to create fun playwear for kids. While these may not be the elaborate costumes you see on kids at Halloween, having a chest of these fun capes, masks and wands would be a kid's dream. There are even patterns for matching capes for pets!

Lots of great ideas!

9.20.2017 - The Best Kind of People

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the publisher and Zoe Whittall for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This book is just out of the pages of the newspaper - although this time we get to glimpse what the family goes through when it is thrust into a scandal. The Woodbury's are an average family - dad is a well-respected, heroic teacher at the prep school where their oldest son, Andrew, graduated and Sadie is still a student. Mom, Joan, is a nurse at the nearby trauma hospital. Then on Sadie's 17th birthday, her dad is arrested for improper sexual conduct with girls that he took on a class ski trip months ago.

Whittall does a great job letting us feel all the different sides to these stories and all the varying emotions the family goes through trying to deal with this situation.

Great read!

9.17.2017 - The Vengeance of Mothers

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and Jim Fergus for the opportunity to read his latest work.

One Thousand White Women was one of our book club's earliest picks and we all enjoyed it. I'm rounding this one up to 4 stars because I struggled more with this book. It probably would have been better if I read the first book again since it has been probably at least a dozen years ago.

This book is again written in journal form - twin sisters Meggie and Susie were survivors of the first book's events, and a new character, Molly McGill, who came as the last of another group of the Brides for Indians program. It was interesting to see the same events from these 2 different perspectives. The Kelly sisters are out for revenge for the death of their babies and turn into warriors.

I struggled a bit with this book but it was still interesting to see what happened to these characters.

9.14.2017 - The Ninth Hour

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, and Alice McDermott for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

This story puts you at the beginning of the 20th century in Catholic Brooklyn. It opens with a death and the pregnant wife, Annie, left behind. The nuns of the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick Poor step in to help Annie, with a job in the laundry room of the convent. There, she and the sisters raise Sally.

The writing in this novel is beautiful, as you would expect from McDermott. You will fall in love with these characters - especially the nuns - as they do their best in the world as they see fit. The book is narrated by a group "we" - the children and grandchildren of Sally that let us see a glimpse of their life with these characters.

I loved the Catholic history and the lives of the nuns. It's amazing to see how attitudes have changed in our current secular society. But this book shows you both sides of right and wrong and how God will see into your heart and decide what is fair.

Highly recommended!!

9.12.2017 - Lies She Told

Thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Cate Holahan for the opportunity to read and review this book. This was a quick read thriller that kept me interested to the end. It's written in a different style that takes a bit of getting used to.

The book alternates chapters and voices. Liza is a writer on deadline to finish her latest romantic suspense novel. Her last couple books never took off like her one popular book and she feels pressured to make this one great. Liza is married to David, a prominent attorney, who is depressed over the fact that his law partner is missing. Liza and David are undergoing experimental fertility treatments in the hopes of getting pregnant. The other voice - Beth - is the star of the novel that Liza is writing. She is married to Jake and they have a newborn daughter. Beth catches Jake having an affair. The lines between reality and fiction begin to blur until you're not sure which version is real.

9.10.2017 - When We Were Worthy

Thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Marybeth Mayhew Whalen for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This would be a great book club read because they are so many different viewpoints to discuss - fans of Jodi Picoult will like this book as it allows you to put yourself in others' shoes.

Worthy is a typical small town that lives and breathes for its football team and the players become God-like. The book opens with an accident that will change everything - one teenager hits a carful of cheerleaders. The story is told in the voices of 4 women: Marglyn (the other of one of the cheerleaders); Darcy (the mother of the driver that hit the girls); Ava (a substitute teacher at the high school); and Leah (a cheerleader who normally would have been in the car with the other girls).

Lots of current issues to discuss - teenage peer pressure, wanting to belong and be wanted no matter how old we are, the different viewpoints of the mothers. Great writing - quick read!