18+ Review: Wedding Games by Karen S. Smith

The following review contains explicit content and language that may not be suitable for minors. To read the full review, hit the page break.

Wedding Games by Karen S. Smith
Published November 8th 2012 by Black Lace
Source: finished copy from the publisher
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Goodreads summary: Emma is not looking forward to her cousin's wedding: the usual awkward guests, the endless small talk, the bad dancing... But a chance encounter with Kit, a very sexy stranger, leaves her breathless.
Without a chance to say goodbye, Emma resigns herself to the fact their incredibly hot encounter will be just sexy memory but then she meets Kit at another wedding...

Adult Review: Shadows of the Past by Carmen Stefanescu

Shadows of the Past by Carmen Stefanescu
Published December 4th 2012 by Wild Child Publishing
Source: review copy from the author
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads summary: When Anne and Neil leave on a one-week holiday hoping to reconcile after a two-year separation, little do they know that destiny has other plans for them. Their discovery of human bones and a bejeweled cross in the hollow of a tree open the door to the supernatural realm and the anguished life of Genevieve, a nun from medieval England.
Can Anne save her relationship and help Genevieve her eternal rest?
The twists and turns in this paranormal tale keep the reader guessing up to the end and weave themselves together into a quest to rekindle love.

I accepted this book for review based on its promising synopsis; a ghost story that spans five centuries is not something I wanted to pass on. It was nice, the way the past was connected to the present was interesting, tapping into reincarnation and curses. Intrigued?

Still, I had a major problem with the characters. Genevieve wasn't that bad since we get to see enough of her difficult childhood, but Anne and Neil (our contemporaries) I found very bland and uninteresting. The dialogues were stiff an unnatural. One thing I particularly disliked was Neil's reasoning behind cheating on Anne. The poor thing has absolutely no idea how it happened that he got in bed with Anne's (former) best friend. Poor poor guy. I wasn't convinced. Sure, people make mistakes, I could see why Anne was willing to forgive him. But that explanation was laughable.

Overall, with more blood and flesh to the characters I would have enjoyed it more, but I liked the mystery surrounding the remnants of the covenant and the resolution to a tragic love story from five hundred years ago. Shadows of the Past is an adult novel, but very innocent when it comes to romantic situations.

18+ Review: Forbidden Fruit by Eden Bradley

The following review contains content that may not be suitable for minors. 

Review: When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman

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When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Published March 1st 2011 by Headline Review
Source: library
My rating: 4.5 stars
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Goodreads Summary: This is a book about a brother and a sister. It's a book about secrets and starting over, friendship and family, triumph and tragedy, and everything in between. More than anything, it's a book about love in all its forms.
In a remarkably honest and confident voice, Sarah Winman has written the story of a memorable young heroine, Elly, and her loss of innocence- a magical portrait of growing up and the pull and power of family ties. From Essex and Cornwall to the streets of New York, from 1968 to the events of 9/11, When God Was a Rabbit follows the evolving bond of love and secrets between Elly and her brother Joe, and her increasing concern for an unusual best friend, Jenny Penny, who has secrets of her own. With its wit and humor, engaging characters whose eccentricities are adroitly and sometimes darkly drawn, and its themes of memory and identity, When God Was a Rabbit is a love letter to true friendship and fraternal love.
Funny, utterly compelling, fully of sparkle, and poignant, too, When God Was a Rabbit heralds the start of a remarkable new literary career.

If you've read some of my reviews before, then you surely know that for me good writing is more important than a good plot or characters. I am willing to forgive a lot of other issues with the book if the writing swoons me (like Winman's did). I was ready to rate this book five stars based on the writing alone. I knew I'd love When God Was A Rabbit from the first five sentences. There are few words to describe Winman's writing. Gorgeous. Magical. Beautiful. Raw and tender at the same time. Lyrical, descriptive, but never complicated. An experience that you want to share with someone special, and that makes every book that comes after a slight disappointment. When God Was A Rabbit spoiled me to no end.

The reasons why I am not saying this book is perfection (but is quite close to it) is the plot. There is very little of it to talk about. It is a colorful tale of growing up, and since it's even dealing with similar issues, it reminded me of a more mature, female and British version of Chbosky's The Perks of Being A Wallflower. Much of the main character's personality is defined by something that happened in her childhood. If you find Eleanor odd at moments, please keep reading, the full extent of the trauma shows close to the end. But I also must say, I don't think it excuses some of her characteristics.

There were bits in the plot that didn't add up. I didn't question them at the time I was reading-I was too caught up, but thinking of it now, the plot of When God Was A Rabbit is a number of scenes. I hoped that by the end there would be a visible thread that would tie the scenes into a unified and coherent whole, but I didn't find it. Some scenes, albeit beautiful, hilarious or aching, felt out of place or randomly picked by the "wouldn't it be cool if we..." method.

If any of the issues I mention are turning you away from this book, I urge you, please give it a try. I'll keep recommending it because the positive outweighs the negative tidbits by tons. Winman is an immensely talented author, and considering that When God Was A Rabbit was her debut, I am completely in awe. Open a random page if you run into it in a bookstore or library, like I did. You won't want to put it back.

Review: In The After by Ashley Mackler Paternostro

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In The After by Ashley Mackler-Paternostro
Published October 16th, 2012
Source: from the author for review
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My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary: There is a reason fairy tales end when they do ... because happily ever after is just the beginning of real life.
Once upon a time in the quaint, forgotten coastal town of Joyce, Washington Emmy Burns existed in the middle of an inconsequential life that resembled a small-town fairy tale; days filled with caring for her daughter Avery, running her small but thriving pottery store, married to the only man she had ever loved.  But all of that changed when the fog rolled out one beautiful morning, leaving emptiness where Emmy had stood only the day before. She had seemingly and without a sound vanished into the thick misty air of the Pacific Northwest, taking with her a lifetime of secrets.
In the aftermath Stephen Burns is content telling the police his wife must have simply chosen to walk away from him and their daughter.  But Sidney Ruth, Emmy's closest friend, knows the truth. Sidney is the one person who had watched as the vines grew around the dark forest that was the Burn's marriage trapping Emmy inside and keeping everyone who loved her out.
Years of abuse has to lead to this moment.  As the days unfurl so do the secrets Emmy kept walled away, leaving the people of Joyce wondering: What really happened to Emmy Burns in her happily ever after?

My review:

Ashley Mackler-Paternostro paints a painfully accurate portrait of a domestic violence victim whose own prince turned out to be something different from what she envisioned. From one moment to the next, Emmy is gone without a trace, and her life-long best friend Sidney, knowing what was going on behind the closed doors of Emmy's home, cannot accept the fact that Emmy would simply walk away and leave her daughter behind. A race with time begins to prove that something happened to Emmy, something horrible, but everyone continues to turn a blind eye, even the police.

Books about domestic abuse are never easy reads. When I started this novel, I didn't really know how harrowing it would become. I was hooked by the premise that promised a lot of mystery and heartbreak, and the dark side of a fairy tale gone wrong. Nevertheless, something in the execution fell short of capturing me emotionally. It took me a while to become invested in the story, mostly due to the character of Sidney. While Emmy grew to become a person I love, Sidney was a tough nut. I was put off by her tendency to engage in long monologues that broke the otherwise smooth and easy-flowing narrative. The length she goes to help her friend is admirable, but as a person, I just couldn't connect with her.

Though the emotional pay-off came a bit late, I found myself reading the rest through a veil of tears. It is hard not to, seeing that Emmy is a woman who sacrificed her own well-being in favor of her daughter. I can't imagine any mother staying cool at that. There's a twist too, though I'm fairly certain that you've seen this sort of twist in TV dramas. Still, it comes as a surprise, and the closure is, if tough for all parties involved, a very satisfying one.

All things considered, this is a well-written and powerful family drama, and my complaints are completely based on personal biases. So please do consider giving this book a chance.

Review: Ghostwriter by Lissa Bryan

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Ghostwriter by Lissa Bryan
Published October 11, 2012 by The Writer's Coffee Shop
Source: publisher via NetGalley
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My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary: After being laid off from the newspaper where she worked as a journalist, and losing her boyfriend in rapid succession, Sara Howell is looking to downsize before her dwindling savings run out. Things are finally starting to look up when she lands a job ghostwriting the biography of a popular politician and rents an isolated island house which turns out to have once been the home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925.
But when strange things start happening, as objects break, or go missing, and terrifying visions appear, Sara begins to wonder if Seth ever left, or if she is losing her mind.
What happened to Seth is a secret closely guarded by the family to this day, a family that seems to exist under a terrible curse. Through an old trunk of letters she discovers in the attic, Sara unravels the mystery and becomes caught up in a tale of greed, lost love and the horrors of WWI.
When Sara realizes she is not going crazy and that Seth Fortner’s spirit still haunts her new home on the isolated island, she begins to draw him out of his shell bit by bit. She will discover what happened to the idealistic young writer who went to the battlefields of France to save lives, and to his beautiful bride to destroy the love between them, and what led Seth to make a terrible choice which would have consequences
that would echo for generations.
They gradually fall in love in their world of dreams, dreams which swiftly become more attractive than reality, as Sara learns from a ghost how to truly live. Will she be the one to break the “Fortner Curse” by helping Seth conquer his demons, and heal both of their hearts in the process?

My review: 
To be completely fair, there were parts of this book that deserved more than 3 stars, but looking at the complete book, and the few bumps on the road, 3 stars seem like a fitting rating.

Ghostwriter starts out rather slow as we get to know Sara in midst of the mess that her life has become: she's unemployed, she broke up with her boyfriend, is on bad terms with her mother and struggling to ghostwrite a biography of a rather dull politician. She accepts the offer to cheaply rent a cabin on an isolated island, only to find out that it was the previous home of her favorite author who died under mysterious circumstances a century ago.

Even though the pace remains slow throughout the novel, this is where things start to get more interesting. I loved the atmosphere of the island, a true heaven for a loner and writer like Sara. Sara finally comes to life and we get to see the real her, not the monotonously grey character that she was in the beginning. The introduction of Seth happens slowly, and gave me goosebumps more than once. He provided me with some of my favorite moments of this book, especially when the final third rolls around.

The final part felt like reading a completely different book, and it's a great pay-off for the slow and long build-up. I was mesmerized not only with the sweet romance, but also the entire ghost background that Lissa Bryan creates. The grand finale was a whirlwind of emotions, a beautiful tale of love between soulmates, and a story that I wanted to be a part of for at least a little bit longer.

It's hard to pinpoint why the beginning didn't really work for me. Maybe because Sara is not an exceptionally interesting character? The slow pacing? The not-so-memorable writing? Need for a more tight prose? Whatever it is, I am grateful for the big twist that made the story not only take a turn for the better, but also stick with me for days after I finished reading this book.

Review: Gilded Age by Claire McMillan

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Gilded Age: A Novel by Claire McMillan
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published June 12th 2012
Source: present
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My rating: 3.5./5

Review: In Too Deep by Portia Da Costa

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In Too Deep by Portia Da Costa
Paperback, 256 pages
Published August 2nd 2012 by Black Lace Books (Virgin Books imprint-first published November 1st 2008)
Source: received from publisher for review
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary: It's all in the mind...

Librarian Gwendolynne Price starts finding indecent proposals and sexy stories in her suggestion box every morning. Shocked that they seem to be tailored specifically to her own deepest sexual fantasies, she begins a tantalising relationship with a man she's never met.

At the same time, she's fast getting involved with a man she has met. Superstar historian Professor Daniel Brewster is on sabbatical, researching in the library. The glamorous academic sets women's hearts thudding all over the country, but Gwendolynne is the one he quickly shows an interest in...

Pretty soon however, a relationship of erotic letters and toe-curlingly sensual emails collides with kinky games played in the all too real flesh.

Can Gwendolynne decipher the identity of her mysterious correspondent Nemesis, and will he still be as exciting when unmasked? Can she survive the pain of loving then losing Daniel when his research is over and leaves and moves on?

Or is she tangled in too deep with both men?

Review:

I don't mind some steamy romance every so often, though I don't review a lot of erotica. That's why I was quite surprised when I received this novel from Black Lace for review. I liked the summary, and the cover (call me shallow). That said, the story didn't impress me at all.

The plot was very predictable, and to guess who might be our mysterious letter-writer was no brainer (because he's, ehm, the only guy who appears in the novel). His erotic letters were rather blunt, leaving little to imagination, and honestly, not at all exciting to me. I wish I could say better things for the rest of the novel, and that it gets more exciting when the two finally meet, but I've read regular romance and chick-lit that was hotter than this novel (Rachel Gibson comes to mind). From In Too Deep I expected more. More feeling, more excitement, more erotic tingles. The kink factor remains low, and quite naive and funny.

Gwendolynne Price, the main character who starts receiving erotic letters from a mysterious Nemesis seems to have no friends and no life outside the library and Nemesis' little games. Most of the time she is either thinking abut sex, or having sex. Everything gets pretty repetitive, until the twist. Which was also predictive, and results in predictive happy ending.

To sum up, the novel was rather bleak and uninteresting, though not completely unreadable. I didn't have to force myself to finish it, but at the end, I felt nothing for it. It was just...okay.

Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

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Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Published May 1 2007 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hills
Source: bought
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary: Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.
The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. --Valerie Ryan

Awwwwww. I loved this book so much and couldn't put it down.The excellent narration just pulls you forward and it doesn't feel like you've read 300+ pages. The story was quite interesting too, hitting straight into the ugliest side of the 1930's circus suffering, like any other business of the day, from the stock market crash and prohibition.
It's the complete opposite of the only other circus novel I've had the pleasure of reading, The Night Circus in which I fell in love with the circus. With this one you could say I fell out of love with it. Only to fall for it again in the end.
Be warned, there are gut-wrenching descriptions of "training techniques". Not limited to animals. Seriously, you don't know who is worse off in this circus, the animals or the people.

It's a very sentimental book that gave me goosebumps and the funny squeeky voices that I do when I love a book. Still, cool head restored, a star is detracted for it's naivety and rather one-dimensional characters and the "aw"-inducing happy ending that was maybe a tad too sentimental.

There's another circus book that I discovered these days, That Time I Joined The Circus. Looking forward to it!

Review: The Beach Holiday by Anita Hughes

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The Beach Holiday by Anita Hughes
Paperback, 302 pages
Published: July 19th 2012 by Ebury Press
My rating: 3/5

Goodreads Summary: Have you ever wanted to escape?
When Amanda finds her French husband wrapped around his sous-chef, her perfect life comes crashing down. Worse, Andre seems to think she should just accept his infidelity and carry on as normal for the sake of their young son, Max. Devastated by his betrayal, Amanda accepts her mother's offer of an holiday and runs away with Max to an exclusive resort in Laguna Beach. The St. Regis Hotel is heaven on earth and Max is having the time of his life. But while Amanda knows she should be using the time to think about what she wants, her life gets more complicated by a meeting with a handsome older man...

When you look at that pretty cover and read the synopsis, you pretty much know what to expect-a quick and easy, more or less entertaining beach read. While I did have some slight problems with it, overall, it was fine.

The Holiday Beach follows the maxim "what you see is what you get". The synopsis promises some drama, some romance and some high life, and it's all there. Amanda Blick finds her French husband wrapped around his female staff. She's devastated, having given up her dreams and invested ten years into being a support to her ambitious and charming husband and raising her son. Amanda's mother convinces her to join her in on her vacation in the St. Regis in Laguna Beach where it's all about luxury, Bentleys, room service, designer clothes and-you guess-a new man.

Amanda is a great mother. That's the one thing I can say about her. Maybe the life of this woman is too far removed from the sort of life I live. If one of the first things that the man who proposes your hand tells you that adultery is a normal part of life where he comes from, would you still marry him and be shell-shocked when he follows up on his word? Amanda is bounced around like a ping-pong ball, taking instructions from her friend, her mother, she is even guided-coerced-into the new relationship. The one thing she's adamant about is getting a divorce form her husband, and eventually she makes a big decision that I desperately wanted to see earlier. I was actually yelling, "You go girl!"

I am never impressed with brands and luxury, not in real life, not in books. Hughes doesn't overdo it; labels are inserted strategically, like small reminders that Amanda does belong to the créme de la créme of the society.

And then, the thing with Edward...ah, I don't know, I found him quite pushy from the beginning. Not my favorite character in the book. But I did love Stephanie very much for making me laugh out loud several times and for being so supportive when she was not a character to expect it from in the beginning.

I read this book in one afternoon. I don't really know what else to say about it; it's take it or leave it. The Beach Holiday is definitely not a miss, but I've read better.

Many thanks to Ebury Press for sending me a review copy!

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Review: The Last Refuge by Ben Coes

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The Last Refuge by Ben Coes
ARC
Published: July 3rd 2012 by St. Martin's Press
Source: ARC from the publisher



Goodreads Summary: With time running out to stop the nuclear destruction of Tel Aviv, Dewey Andreas must defeat his most fearsome opponent yet.


Off a quiet street in Brooklyn, New York, Israeli Special Forces commander Kohl Meir is captured by operatives of the Iranian secret service, who smuggle Meir back to Iran, where he is imprisoned, tortured, and prepared for a show trial.  


What they don’t know is that Meir was in New York to recruit Dewey Andreas for a secret operation. Meir had been tipped off that Iran had finally succeeded in building their first nuclear weapon, one they were planning to use to attack Israel. His source was a high-level Iranian government official and his proof was a photo of the bomb itself.  


Dewey Andreas, a former Army Ranger and Delta, owes his life to Meir and his team of Israeli commandos. Now, to repay his debt, Dewey has to attempt the impossible ---to both rescue Meir from one of the world’s most secure prisons and to find and eliminate Iran’s nuclear bomb before it’s deployed---all without the help or sanction of Israel or America (at the near certain risk of detection by Iran). 


Unfortunately, Dewey’s first moves have caught the attention of Abu Paria, the brutal and brilliant head of VEVAK, the Iranian secret service. Now Dewey has to face off against, outwit, and outfight an opponent with equal cunning, skill, and determination, with the fate of millions hanging in the balance.


Review by: Vjeko



“The Last Refuge” is Ben Coes’ third novel starring the character Dewey Andreas, after "Coup D’ Etat", and “Power Down.” It belongs to one of my favorite genres, the political “real world” thriller. I get a real kick out of reading intelligent people sitting at a table, having an intelligent conversation about some urgent “we need to act now” situation. People like Tom Clancy, John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum are masters of this style of writing and have been copied many times.


I had two basic problems with “The Last Refuge”, one on a personal level and one on a visceral level. As I’ve already mentioned, the formula for this genre has become somewhat clichéd and thus it is impossible to read this book without automatically comparing to Ludlum’s and Clancy’s work. I tried really hard, but the similarities are just too striking: an international crisis, various groups of men in suits playing Greek choir and sitting at a table comment and giving exposition, and most importantly, the hero with special skills who just wants to be left in peace but is dragged into a situation. And this is probably my biggest problem with this novel. Dewey Andreas is just not that interesting of a hero. He simply goes through the motions of a million other protagonists in this genre: wants to live a peaceful life, isn’t allowed to, has to rescue and /or avenge someone. He doesn’t have the intelligence and wit of Jack Ryan and he doesn’t have the physicality of Jason Bourne. Now, it may not be fair to make these comparisons, but I really feel that that was what Coes was going for and simply doesn’t distinguish himself enough.


My second problem is that Coes wears his politics on his sleeve a bit too much. And while I don’t begrudge him for his viewpoints, for which he is perfectly entitled to as much as Grisham is entitled to liberalism, Coes’ characters suffer. Americans come across as militant righteous jerks, and Iranians as stereotypical “possible” bad guys who shouldn’t get a single benefit of a doubt. All of this is very clearly stated in the novel. Does all this take away from Coes’ capabilities as a writer? Not at all and I’m sure a lot of people won’t be bothered by any of this, I guess it’s just a case of personal preference.


It wouldn’t be fair to deny that this novel has some things going for it. Coes has a very good sense of pacing and individual situations are tense and exciting. It is a consistently readable novel, at times very much so. And as much as I disliked Andreas, some of the supporting players, representatives of agencies are very sharp and have good dialogue.


“The Last Refuge” will work best for newbies in this genre. It is a serviceable introduction to this kind of writing but more experienced fans will have a problem not comparing with what came before.  Coes is a promising talent, he just needs to work on giving us more of his own unique voice and toning down on his politics affecting his characters.

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Review: When You Were Older by Catherine Ryan Hyde

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ARC: 416 pages
Source: publisher
Published: March 29 2012 by Doubleday
My rating: 4.5/5

Goodreads Summary: Russell Ammiano could not be more happy to have left his tiny Kansas town of Norville—or Nowhere-ville, as he calls it—behind forever. But on the morning of September 11th, 2001, a phone call makes him late to work. It’s from a neighbor in Norville. Russell’s mother has passed away suddenly. Russell must come home immediately, because someone has to take care of his older brother, Ben. Russell books a flight. But before he can even head for the airport, two planes hit the World Trade Center, where Russell worked. Russell would have been there, if not for the phone call. The life he’s so carefully built as a successful young ad executive comes tumbling down, literally. He hitchhikes all the way home.     His 30-year-old brother Ben, brain damaged in a childhood accident, hasn’t changed a bit. And he never will. Russell has to try to figure out how his mother took care of Ben, without any “manual” of instructions. It’s not easy.
The town is a little different. Three of Russell’s high school friends are National Guard, and soon to ship out to Afghanistan. The old dry cleaners has been replaced by a bakery owned by naturalized Egyptian Nazir El Sayed and his daughter Anat. Russell befriends the two, and finds himself caught in the middle when post-9/11 fervor targets them for abuse. But the situation is further complicated when Russell falls for Anat, and she for him, challenging her traditional Egyptian upbringing.

...and the award for the amount of humanity woven into a book goes to Catherine Ryan Hyde. Based on my experience with the previous and first-to-me book by this author, Don't Let Me Go, I've had only a faint idea of what to expect: "small" people waging their everyday battles, love and devotion, strength of human spirit and generosity in abundance. Our heroes in When You Were Older are Russell, who worked in one of the towers and thought he had left his small town far behind; his brother Ben who sustained a brain damage as child and is incapable of living alone after mother's death; Anat and her father who, being of Egyptian origin, become targets for  people to take out their frustrations toward everything Middle Eastern; their neighbors and friends, some of them sent to war never to come back.


Catherine looks at a fistful of people in a small town in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy and describes what probably went through people's minds, wherever they were in the world in that moment. It's a complex tale of tolerance, guilt, forgiving and love. When everything changes in a matter of minutes, Russell must deal with the loss of his new life that burned down in the debris of the towers and return to a life he ran away from. This book is about trying to make sense and reason with what happened while confronted with another life-changing tragedy. The author does it with much grace and warmth and bit by bit restores your faith in humanity.

Maybe in all that Russell comes out as a bit too perfect. So does the rest of the cast. There's a happy ending after all the obstacles have been heroically overcome. But in this case, it works. It's not a book to provoke hate, but to promote optimism. Read it when you need something uplifting, a moral boost, and a book that makes you happy.


The moment I received the ARC, I took a peek at the first page. I didn't stop until I finished the whole book in one day. Parting from the book, even for a few minutes was nearly a torture, filled with the yearning to be back. You know, that fantastic feeling that you only get from great books. As soon as I finished it, I had the need to start again and I'll definitely reread it some time soon. This is my new feel-good book.

Review: The Look of Love by Judy Astley

• Paperback: 384 pages 
• Publisher: Black Swan (5 January 2012)
• Source: copy from the publisher
• My rating: 3/5
• Summary: Bella has given up on men. Happily divorced for ages, her latest boyfriend just omitted to tell her about his wife, so she’s back on her own again. She agrees to house-sit for friends who have rented the place out to a television company for a makeover programme. Against her better judgment Bella finds herself taking part in the programme, and learns a little bit too much about the behind-the-scenes truth of ‘reality’ TV. And as if that weren’t bad enough, her ex-husband has re-entered her life and seems to want to be on friendlier terms…

In the early stages of this book I feared this was not going to work out for me. With the somewhat slow beginning and thin story that didn't really grab me, I really thought I'd trail off and pick up something else. Eventually it grew on me, mostly because of the characters. Each one of them is interesting, colorful and well-developed. Bella is a completely normal, down-to-earth woman, someone every one of us may know.  I laughed out loud many times, and usually that's a good indicator of "it was a good book" for me. I'm not a big fan of make-over kind of shows and luckily it was not heavily featured in The Look of Love. Besides, it's a different concept of show, and those were probably the funniest parts of the book.  

Anyway, it was quite predictable and unchallenging. You know with whom Bella is going to end up with the moment he enters the stage, that the house issues will pan out, that the whole thing with Molly and her boyfriend isn't all that dramatic. The bumps that Bella encounters don't really present an obstacle or they are too easily resolved, all for the sake of the happy ending. The relationship issues between Bella's daughter Molly and Giles....I didn't know what that was for. In the course of the novel, it really didn't bring out a point. As for the relationship of Bella's mother-that did make a point. Older people have sex. Accept it.

It was a nice read, but I wish the author pushed it a bit further. What if the house was really sold? I believe Bella would have found her way to deal with it. With a cup of tea, of course.

Review: Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope

• Paperback, 328 pages
• Published March 1st 2011
• Source: finished copy from publisher
• My rating: 3/5

• Summary: Rachel has always loved being at the centre of her large family. She has fiercely devoted herself to her three sons all their lives. They are, of course, devoted to her - she and Anthony, their father, hold the family together at their ramshackle house near the coast of Suffolk. But when Luke, her youngest, gets married, Rachel finds that control is slipping away. Other people seem to be becoming more important to her children than she is, and she can no longer rely on her role as undisputed matriarch. A power struggle develops which can only end in unhappiness; her three daughters-in-law want to do things their own way, and so, to her grief, do her sons .. 

Daughters in Law turned out to be less melodramatic and more insightful than I could have guessed from the summary. There's not much swerving with a story about a mother who considers all women on this world unworthy of her precious boys. It's either the mother or the daughter in law that's being obnoxious. In Joanna Trollope's book, no one is guilty and no one is totally innocent either. I loved how she accomplished to provide different perspectives on some issues by switching perspectives. I guess most of us have had these situations in our lives, being confronted with in-laws who seem to be sticking their noses where they shouldn't. It takes a tremendous amount of maturity (and patience, god, patience) to handle these situations. I experienced a pang or two of familiarity while reading it. You can't live your own life while making everyone else happy, and there's no taking sides. A mother wants the best for her kids, the kids have their own ideas of how they should live their lives, and more often than not, chaos ensues.

That said, I was terribly annoyed by the character of Rachel. She's biased and a control freak, worse than being simply a matriarchal figure. Another set of characters that made my blood pressure skyrocket were Petra and Ralph. Petra is like a doll, with everyone pampering around her, bordering on autistic whenever it's time for her to utter any wish or need. No wonder there's a crisis between her and Ralph since the two of them never seem to talk. Ralph conveniently walks out of the scene and Petra goes walking on the beach. I really didn't see why the two of them would be a good match or marriage material at all.

It's mostly due to the characters that I didn't like this book more. I found very little in them that made me feel sympathetic. Concurrently, many things about them made me angry. Otherwise, Trollope deals well with the subtleties between couples and in-laws.

Review: Nothing But Trouble by Rachel Gibson

Nothing but Trouble by Rachel Gibson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Published (Paperback) September 19, 2011 (Corgi)
Summary: When opposites attract, the sparks start to fly… 

Washed up from Hollywood and in serious need of cash, Chelsea Ross, aspiring actress, jumps at the $10,000 opportunity to act as ‘carer’ to famous hockey player Mark Bressler, injured after a car crash. After all, how hard can it be to play nice and pick up after an incredibly hot invalid in need of her tender loving care? Just three months of playing nurse and the cash is hers.But Mark Bressler doesn’t need help. The moody hockey player’s glory days may be over, but he has no intention of letting anyone aid his recovery, least of all the maddeningly cheerful Chelsea. He’s determined to get her to quit – and Mark isn’t the type to give in. But then, neither is Chelsea…

Oh, this was one sexy book. Since this was my first Gibson book, I didn't know what to expect. It wasn't life-changing, but it was enjoyable and funny and -did I mention-sexy. Very much so.

As for the plot, it's your regular romance plot. They hate each other, they are attracted to each other, they have sex, a secret surfaces, there's tears and eventually a happy ending. I enjoyed it mostly because of the characters. You have a very House-like hockey player and a pixie-sized actress with big breasts constantly at each other's throats. Sparks are flying from the word go. You could cut the tension with a knife. Great job with dialogues. I read a large portion of this book on the bus and got a lot of odd glances for laughing out loud.

This is a nice and easy, feel-good, sit-back-and-relax book. I'd like to read the rest of the series. Hopefully it's just as sexy, witty and funny like this one.

My thanks goes to Lynsey Dalladay from Transworld for sending me a copy for review.


View all my reviews

TSS: The Other Side of the Story

by Marian Keyes

Buy from:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


Short bio:





Marian Keyes was born in the West of Ireland in 1963. She was brought up in Dublin, earned a degree in law and accounting and then spent her twenties in London. She started to write after a recovery from alcoholism in 1993. Her first novel, Watermelon, was published in 1995. Nearly 5 million copies of her five books have been sold worldwide.

What is it about?
This is a story of three women whose lives get tangled up in a game of love, betrayal, ambitions and books.
Gemma Hogan, a successful events organizer, is lost in her parent’s break up. She tries to keep her work on the top and nurse her lethargic mother. To make things worse, the Love of Her Life, Anton, goes to London, where he meets Gemma’s best friend, Lilly Wright. Lilly and Anton fall in love, and Lilly is driven with guilt for stealing her best friend’s boyfriend, believing that it will bring her bad karma. After being mugged during pregnancy, Lilly writes a novel and becomes successful. Gemma writes a book on her experiences with her parent’s. Guess who represents both of them?
Jojo Harvey is an energetic and sexy literary agent who has the look of Jessica Rabbit. She is shooting for a partnership in her company, has an affair with her boss and loses both eventually, breaking up on an agency on her own and breaking up with her lover. Yep, they never leave their wives.

Online:
Marian Keyes official web site

In conclusion:
I always reread the books I like. I read this one six months ago and now again. The Other Side of the Story is a typical example of chick-lit. It’s funny, witty, refreshing and relaxing. Though I don’t read much of this genre, I do grab for one when I want to wind up. Sincerely, the book won’t reveal you the mysteries of the universe-but it’s a perfect choice for an evening off with a book. What ensured this book a place in my heart is that it was my first source of information on how the publishing world works, long before I started to research the industry for serious.

It is told in the perspective of each, providing you with-ehem, the other side of the story. And it actually works. You can’t judge Lilly after you hear how she fell in love with Anton and how she resisted it not to break her best friends heart.
It’s maybe a bit too long for a chick-lit novel, but it doesn’t harm. It’s about women. Don’t we always have a lot to say?

P.S. I'll post the cover art later since each time I try to post more than one pick my net connection fails...

The Sunday Salon

The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, Forgotten Genius of Electricity by Robert Lomas

Product DetailsHardcover: 248 pages
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (January 1999)
Language: English

Where to buy?

From Amazon

Short bio:
Robert Lomas is a British writer who writes primarily about the history of Freemasonry as well as the Neolithic period, ancient engineering and archaeoastronomy. Lomas's theories about the origins of Freemasonry have caused controversy among Masonic historians. It is thought by some freemasons that Lomas might be the inspiration for the character of Dr. Robert Langdon, in Dan Brown's thriller, The Da Vinci Code. He currently lectures on Information Systems at the University of Bradford's School of Management.

First impression:
Not a month ago, my German Language Practice professor asked a simple question.
“Name one famous Croatian.”
On a whim, fifteen voices shouted:
“Nikola Tesla!”
“And what is he famous for?”
We stared sheepishly at each other. A meek voice broke the silence.
“He…invented electricity?”
The professor nodded.
“Okay. Of what importance is it for us?”
Another roll of sheepish glancing. Obvious enough, isn’t it? Or is it a trick question?
“Let me rephrase the question,” she said. “If Tesla gave us something that we owe him so much for, why did he die broke, alone and dejected in a hotel room?”

She surely gave us some to think about. And a lot of homework in addition.
Strangely enough, few days later, my father brought a copy of this book from a conference. Now that I have read it, I feel eligible to answer my professor's question.

What is it about?In his introduction, R. Lomas says he wanted to tell an easy-read story about Tesla’s life, with an emphasis on why he never gained fortune on his inventions. The answer is as simple as this; Tesla was a terrible businessman.
Nikola Tesla was born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan in Croatia, when the church bell tolled the last second of the 10th of July 1856. It was a stormy night and Tesla was dubbed a child of thunder from his birth on. His father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Having lost his older brother, Dana, who was supposed to follow in his father’s footsteps, Nikola always felt that he failed to meet his parent’s expectations. This need to substitute for his parent’s loss led into a fervent perfectionism in whatever he did.
After receiving superb education, Tesla worked as a telegrapher in Budapest, where he received a recommendation to work for the grand T. A. Edison. Nikola got robbed in Paris and arrived to New York with only what he had in his pockets.
Very soon, Tesla found himself disappointed in Edison. Edison, who had a brilliant nose for business, didn’t agree with Tesla’s idea that electricity should be accessible and free to all people alike. After numerous misfortunate business deals, Tesla, who never doubted in the rightness of his ideas and beliefs, came out short not only of financial reward, but also public recognition, which in a particular way was more important to him. He wanted to prove his success to his parent’s. He was considered a mad scientist, seeking publicity with his sci-fi ideas. Unfortunately, Tesla was so ahead of his contemporaries that, what seems normal today was pure fantasy at his time.
Tesla was raised to appreciate knowledge per se, not for the profit it might spawn. Few people believed in his vision; fewer were willing to support him financially so he could work on his projects that were financially worthless, but beneficial for all humankind.
The man who managed to harness the energy of the Niagara Falls died at the age of 86, alone in a hotel room, with no one but pigeons to talk to.
Tesla was acquainted with many famous people of the time. In Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain) he saw a fatherly figure. Even as a child, Tesla enjoyed Twain’s novel and considered them beneficial for his health. Tesla disagreed with Einstein’s theory, and recent experiments proved him right. He invented the radio three years before Marconi, but never received public recognition because of his perfectionism and unwillingness to share his inventions before they were completed up to finest details. He invented the first toy on remote control, plasma grenades, worked with X-rays three years before Roentgen; he was able to create thunders and believed in sending sound and pictures around the world-and even into space.
Tesla was aware that the success of a certain idea depends on the atittude of his contemporaries. If it came at the right moment, people would accept it; unfortunately, Tesla’s contemporaries were either too ignorant or to blind to recognize the immense potential of Tesla’s inventions.

Online:
The Official Robert Lomas Website

In conclussion:
When we were kids in elementary school, we visited the Technical Museum in Zagreb where some of Tesla’s equipment is exhibited. Everything still works perfectly. We widened our eyes when the assistant would make a bulb shine in his hand, when an artificial thunder would strike above our heads or when the egg would start to spin on a velvet stand.
I would feel ashamed if I didn’t put effort in learning more about this genius. A man to whom the world owes so much, who said was “equally proud of his Serbian origin and his Croatian homeland” deserves at least that much as a group of students being aware of his importance.
This book might be a real gem for someone whose area of work includes electricity and magnetism. Though I assumed it would contain too much physics, I decided to focus on the other level of the story. As for me, it was a bit exhausting to read, and I admit, I skipped the passages about physics. I miss that wire in my head, and I always barely passed my math, physics and chemistry test. But again-to someone interested in these areas, it would be a thriller. Still, there were quite some interesting and funny things. After all, it provided me with the moment when I close the back cover and leave satisfied, not regreting any single moment I put into reading this book.

Sunday Salon

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Expanded edition (November 17, 1993)
Where to buy?
From Amazon

Short bio:
Karen Louise Erdrich was born June 7, 1954. She is a Native American author of novels,poetry and children's books. She is a member of the Anishinaabe nation (Ojibwa and Chippewa) and also has German, French and American ancestry. She is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Louise received numerous rejections from agents and publishers for Love Medicine, until her husband decided to promote it on his own. When published in 1983, the book became a success, and Louise was praised for her wittiness and powerful style of writing. In April 2009, her novel "The Plague of Doves" was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

First impression:
When I first picked up the book in my college library for a book report, I instantly decided I wouldn’t like it. Starting with the cover, a Native American riding a horse. How appealing could a book on Native Americans be to a European girl who knows nothing about them besides what she saw in movies?
Neither the opening was too interesting. Okay, June is a prostitute, gets hooked up by a man in a bar and has sex with him. I sighed. This will be a long read. But the book report assignment said a contemporary adult novel of 350 pages or more. So I nestled deeper into the bed and gave it another shot.
I can’t exactly point out the moment when I realized I couldn’t put the book down. I read it just the same day I brought it home. Little did I know what literary jewel I held in my hands, and what an astonishing world would unfold before my eyes. Needless to say, I got too deep into the story that I forgot to take notes and I had to read it again. At this point, I didn’t mind anymore. Not just that; having it finished for the second time, I ran to the library to pick up more of Louise’s books, The Beet Queen and The Tales of Burning Love.

What is it about?
Louise Erdrich tells an emotional story of two families-the Native American Family of Kashpaws and their “white trash” equivalent, the Lamartines. Following her seven main characters from 1934 up to the 1980’s, each character is represented through its own voice, each one unique and powerful. Louise’s use of language is a topic to discuss on its own; rarely have I read a novel that made me think this is pure poetry. Language is a tool to convey meanings deeper than what they say, a meaning beyond the poor semantics. The struggle of the Kashpaws to find their place in the American society and the struggle of the Lamartines to solve out their own problems, mainly associated to alcohol, domestic violence and poverty will weld into one single struggle when the families unite through a boy, Lipsha Morrissey. Limits between these two, each followed with their own obstacles, will blur; and you will discover that it’s not important who you are, or where you come from. What really counts is the power of love-often destructive, hate, anger, hope and willingness to forgive.

Online:
Louise doesn't have her own official web site. You can find her on Harper Collins Author's Index.
There are many sites that discuss the novel into depths; particularly eNotes offers a wide range of topics for deeper analysis.

In conclusion:
A valuable lesson-don’t judge the book by its covers.It is necessary to read the other novels from her Native American series to fully understand her character’s motivations. Read The Bingo Palace and Tales of Burning Love and you will understand the opening scene of Love Medicine, and many more. Another valuable lesson: always pay attention to the other side of the story.

Now I'm looking forward to the next college semester, where there is a course called Native American Literature. Louise Erdrich's books will be discussed. I'm eager to read her The Blue Jay's Dance, about how motherhood influenced her life and work.

Needless to say, my book report took much more than the advised five minutes!
Highly recomended!