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Review: The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig

17 Feb

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I love this series, and this book is an example of what Lauren Willig always does so well.

Summary via Lauren Willig’s website:

As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, English operative Augustus Whittlesby gets wind of a top secret device, to be demonstrated over the course of a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is to join forces with that annoying American socialite, Emma Morris Delagardie, who has been commissioned to write a masque for the weekend’s entertainment. Even so, it should leave plenty of alone time with Augustus’ colleague (and goddess), Jane Wooliston, who has been tapped to play the heroine. Or so Augustus tells himself. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing seems to go quite as scripted… especially Emma.

What the cover blurb (and description above) miss is the framing contemporary story line, which continues through the series. American graduate student Eloise is living in England researching spies in Napoleon’s time. She discovers that this is harder than she expects, gets tied up in some intrigue of her own, and along the way, finds her own romance, one that doesn’t wrap up quite as tidily as those in the spy stories she’s encountering in her research.

I admit that as of the last installment, I thought the contemporary storyline was getting pushed further and further into the shadow of the historical. As the historical stories were becoming even stronger, I didn’t exactly mind, but I was happy to see it back with some real oomph here. It had real relationship questions mixed in with an absolutely goofy movie set plot, and I found it delightful.  It’s a bit more chck-lit than romance, and Eloise is far from perfect, and all in all, it worked for me.

I didn’t like the historical story quite as well as the last few, but that’s a high standard to hold. Certainly, it still stands up well to the genre as a whole.

As is typical for a Lauren Willig heroine, Emma is not your run of the mill society miss, and isn’t afraid to stand out in society. Her links to the Bonaparte family put her in an situation of interest to the network of spies these books center around, but her flirty personality and interest in her late husband’s mechanical endeavors make her interesting to read about.

I wasn’t enamored with her love interest, but he didn’t pose a problem for me either. Between the fun and frivolity of the masque the two teamed up to put on, the excitement of the spy story, and the interesting historical details, I was well entertained.

I always appreciate Lauren Willig’s notes from her historical research– the most unlikely seeming characters and events turn out to be those pulled from the past.

The big question when reviewing book 9 of a series is whether this one is a good place to start reading. This book would be fine as a standalone, but the series is worth starting at the beginning, and watching the plot build and the characters come and go.

I read this book as part of a TLC Book Tour. Thank you to TLC and Dutton Adult books for providing my copy of the book and the chance to participate. For more thoughts on Garden Intrigue, check out the other tour stops:

TLC Book Tours

 
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Posted by on February 17, 2012 in books, reviews, tour

 

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Review: Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

24 Aug

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Domestic Violets is a book which is simultaneously very odd and very down to earth.  I can see why people are adding it to their best of 2011 lists.

Summary via Goodreads.com:

Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned thirty-five, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day.

The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords, his pretentious archnemesis Gregory, and a hopeless, completely inappropriate crush on his favorite coworker. Oh . . . and his dog, according to the vet, is suffering from acute anxiety.

Tom’s life is crushing his soul, but he’s decided to do something about it. (Really.) Domestic Violets is the brilliant and beguiling story of a man finally taking control of his own happiness—even if it means making a complete idiot of himself along the way.

When Domestic Violets started off with the main character talking about his erectile dysfunction, I knew this wasn’t going to be like anything else I’d read. It took me a little longer to decide if this was a good thing.

It was, largely because Tom Violet was such a great character– someone that wasn’t at all like me, but who had me very interested in his life none-the-less. I ended up reading it in a single day.

If I didn’t have much in common with Tom, I recognize my world in his.

I loved his skewed view of how to handle office politics. I’d hate to work with him, but I loved to read about his strategies at work, both before and after he makes his big decision there.

On a different note, I really appreciated the handling of the strained relationship between him and his wife. Not that I’d want to be in that relationship, but although the details are different, I recognize the kind of stress that happens in a marriage after some number of years have past.

I even appreciated the handling of the paths that can lead to adultery, even in people who really don’t think it could happen to them.

Tom has an entire network of interesting relationships– with his parents, his wife, his daughter, coworkers and friends.  Each was well written, adding to the picture of Tom as a person.

Beyond work and his relationships, Tom is dealing with the questions that many of us face in middle age: Who am I? Who do I want to be?  There are no easy answers for Tom, but what fun would it be if there were?

In the end, Domestic Violets features a funny guy facing the challenges of modern life, and I’m really glad I saw the world through his eyes for a little while.

Domestic Violets would make a great book club read, particularly for clubs that end up reading a lot of books from a female perspective.

I read Domestic Violets for a TLC Book Tour.  Thank you to TLC and Harper Perennial for providing me with a copy of the book and allowing me to take part in the tour.

TLC Book ToursFor other views of the book, check out the other tour stops:

 
9 Comments

Posted by on August 24, 2011 in books, reviews, tour

 

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Review: Money Can’t Buy Love by Connie Briscoe

09 Aug

Money Can't Buy LoveMy rating: 2 of 5 stars

Summary via Goodreads.com:

Lenora Stone used to say if she didn’t have bad luck, she wouldn’t have any luck at all. At age thirty-eight, instead of socializing with Baltimore’s A-list, she photographs them for Baltimore Scene, a glossy magazine filled with beautiful people who, unlike Lenora, never have to worry about car trouble and overdue bills. As much as she’d love to slam the door on her overbearing boss, quitting isn’t an option. She’s barely making her mortgage payments and, though her condo might not be a palace, it’s hers. Lately even things with her boyfriend Gerald haven’t been right. They’ve been together for three years but he can’t seem to ask the one question she’s been waiting for. But what Lenora doesn’t know is that her luck is about to change…

Just when she thinks things can’t get worse, Lenora wins the jackpot in the Maryland lottery. In a heartbeat, all her dreams become possible. She quits her job and indulges her every desire-starting with a shiny, silver BMW and a million-dollar mansion. Gerald is finally ready to put a ring on her finger and the city’s most exclusive women’s group is dying for her to join, officially moving Lenora from behind the lens, into the limelight. But in Lenora’s lavish new world, all that glitters definitely isn’t gold. Her old friend’s are concerned about her sudden changes, and Ray, a sexy, young landscaper Lenora covered for the magazine is looking for more than a purely professional relationship.

As her life starts to come together, the things Lenora holds dear begin to fall apart. Has her world really changed for the better, or does fortune come with a heavy price?

I’ve been thinking about this book for several days now, and I’m starting to think I’m missing something about it.

Books that pick up to read and don’t end up enjoying tend to fall a few categories:

  1. The book isn’t for me. I can see why others would like it, and I can appreciate aspects of it, but we’re not a good match.  A recent example of this would be The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock.
  2. The book isn’t well written. Honestly, this doesn’t happen all that often with professionally published books– my minimum standards aren’t all that high, and a publisher doesn’t often release a book that’s bad enough to be an actual problem for me, and make me really not enjoy a book with an interesting concept.
  3. I just don’t get the book. I’m missing some vital thing about it that would explain why it was worth spending my time reading it. The Finkler Question fell in this category for me.

I think Money Can’t Buy Love falls into category 3, simply because it doesn’t seem to belong in either of the other two.

It isn’t badly written in any general sense. The words flow well, the characters behave consistently, their voices fit with their actions.

But even with that said, I’m missing why I’d want to read this book, other than the description sounding promising (which is why I asked to read it in the first place. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t have finished reading it if I didn’t commit to this tour).

On the one hand, what was missing for me in this book was the fun. I just didn’t want to spend any more time with the main character who made one bad decision after another, and not even in an entertaining sort of way.  I admit,

I’d have given a character in her teens or early 20s a little more leeway, but by her late 30s, I’d expect a woman to be making better choices– making mistakes is fine, but Lenora isn’t doing well in her behavior with her job, her friends, her love life or her finances at the beginning of the book.  After she wins the lottery, her decisions go even further downhill, and I didn’t enjoy watching it.

On the other hand, I didn’t feel that her mistakes were giving me any insight into myself or the world around me, so it didn’t even seem like something that I didn’t have to enjoy, because it was good for me.

So in the end, I’m sitting here thinking I missed something.

If you read and enjoyed this book, I’d love to hear why. Now that I’m done writing this, I’ll spend some time reading other reviews, to see if I can find what they appreciated about it..

I read Money Can’t Buy Love as part of a TLC Book Tour. Thank you to TLC Books and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a review copy and allowing me to participate. For other opinions on this book, check out the other tour stops:
TLC Book Tours

 
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Posted by on August 9, 2011 in books, reviews, tour

 

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Review: The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock

04 Aug

This book and I did not get along. It isn’t that it was a bad book, it just wasn’t for me.

Description via Goodreads.com:

Life on the tiny island of Guernsey has just become a whole lot harder for fifteen-year-old Cat Rozier. She’s gone from model pupil to murderer, but she swears it’s not her fault. Apparently it’s all the fault of history.

A new arrival at Cat’s high school in 1984, the beautiful and instantly popular Nicolette inexplicably takes Cat under her wing. The two become inseparable—going to parties together, checking out boys, and drinking whatever liquor they can shoplift. But a perceived betrayal sends them spinning apart, and Nic responds with cruel, over-the-top retribution.

Cat’s recently deceased father, Emile, dedicated his adult life to uncovering the truth about the Nazi occupation of Guernsey—from Churchill’s abandonment of the island to the stories of those who resisted—in hopes of repairing the reputation of his older brother, Charlie. Through Emile’s letters and Charlie’s words—recorded on tapes before his own death— a “confession” takes shape, revealing the secrets deeply woven into the fabric of the island . . . and into the Rozier family story.

I picked this because I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and The Book of Lies was also set on the island of Guernsey.  For future reference, this is a ridiculous way to pick a book.  Guernsey was a very gentle book, and this one, well “gentle” isn’t anywhere in my description of it.

For me, The Book of Lies was too heavy on the dark, without enough light to counterbalance it. All the characters were deeply flawed, without positive characteristics to allow me to relate. Cat was a smart (but not socially savvy) teen, and usually that’s enough for me. That’s probably why I kept expecting to start liking the book soon. Unfortunately, while I did feel sorry for her, I didn’t like the decisions she made, and I didn’t want to spend my reading time with her.

The other characters in the modern storyline were at least as bad. I’m sure they had positive attributes, but as reader, I never saw them. The teens were horrendous, the adults oblivious. I had hopes for the teacher, but he was too weak to be interesting (although he certainly didn’t deserve what happened to him).

I couldn’t get up enough interest in the historical storyline to care about the characters. It was written as an interview transcript, and the style seemed meant to distance the reader from the events. It certainly had that effect on me.

All that said, I still don’t think it was a bad book. It was well written, with characters that had stories that came through in their actions. It had history that I didn’t know about, and a very different perspective than I’ve seen about the lasting effects of life during wartime. The interweaving of the two time periods, and the similarities and differences in the plotlines in them, would have been compelling if I’d just been able to get into the characters a little more.

For someone with a little more tolerance for realistically disagreeable characters, this could be a wonderful read.  For me, well, I’m learning more about what I do and don’t like in a book.

I read The Book of Lies as part of a TLC book tour.  Thank you to TLC and Harper Collins for providing a copy of the book for me to read and giving me the opportunity to take part in this tour. For other opinions on The Book of Lies, visit the other tour stops (most of which enjoyed the book far more than I did):

 
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Posted by on August 4, 2011 in books, reviews, tour

 

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Review: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

15 Jul

State of WonderMy rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, largely because it isn’t really like anything I’ve read before.

Summary via Goodreads.com:

Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has already cost the company a fortune. Nothing about Marina’s assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina’s research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend’s death, the state of her company’s future, and her own past.

Once found, Dr. Swenson, now in her seventies, is as ruthless and uncompromising as she ever was back in the days of Grand Rounds at Johns Hopkins. With a combination of science and subterfuge, she dominates her research team and the natives she is studying with the force of an imperial ruler. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina, who finds she may still be unable to live up to her teacher’s expectations.

The uniqueness of this book is not just the setting, although I admittedly have very little experience with books set in the Brazilian wilderness. In fact, I’m not thinking of any others offhand.

And it’s not just the medical thriller aspect. I read a bunch of those years ago, but it’s been a while. If research was involved, it was somehow involving a disease that would escape or unwilling research participants. In State of Wonder, the researchers were on the trail of an existing cure for infertility. Better yet, it actually looked at the ethics involved, both with the research and the cure.

The unusual plot and setting were what set State of Wonder apart. These built on a base of amazing writing and great characters. I don’t normally comment on the writing, but I went from this to a book that lacked in this area. I could really see what a difference it made in my overall enjoyment of the book, even when I don’t stop to appreciate the individual words.

I do usually comment on the characters, and they were a strength here. I thought Dr. Marina Singh was interesting as an M.D. turned researcher who is at a standstill in her life– until she is pushed into this trip to Brazil, forcing her to confront her past, present and future.

But as much as I liked Marina (as a character and as a person I’d like to meet), it was the other characters that really fascinated me– none more so than Dr. Swenson, living in the Brazilian jungles in her 70s. What is driving her to continue her research? Why does she avoid all contact with the company that sponsors her work? What secrets has she discovered?

State of Wonder was readable, enjoyable and thought provoking– an all-around win!

I read State of Wonder as part of a TLC Book Tour.  Thank you to TLC and HarperCollins for sending me a copy and allowing me to participate in this tour! For other opinions on this book, check out the other tour stops:
TLC Book Tours

 
11 Comments

Posted by on July 15, 2011 in books, reviews, tour

 

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Review: Things We Didn’t Say by Kristina Riggle

06 Jul

Things We Didn't Say: A NovelMy rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to start out by saying I had somewhat mixed feelings about this book. I found it very well written, so much so that I found it a very uncomfortable read at times.

Summary via Goodreads:

What goes unsaid can sometimes speak the loudest . . .

What makes up a family? For Casey it’s sharing a house with her fiancÉ, Michael, and his three children, whom she intends to nurture more than she ever took care of herself. But Casey’s plans have come undone. Michael’s silences have grown unfathomable and deep. His daughter Angel seethes as only a teenage girl can, while the wide-eyed youngest, Jewel, quietly takes it all in.

Then Michael’s son, Dylan, runs off, and the kids’ mother, a woman never afraid to say what she thinks, noisily barges into the home. That’s when Casey decides that the silences can no longer continue. She must begin speaking the words no one else can say. She’ll have to dig up secrets—including her own—uncovering the hurts, and begin the healing that is long overdue. And it all starts with just a few tentative words. . . .

Things We Didn’t Say is a very character centered novel. All the characters were collections of problems and issues, with a few good characteristics that showed through. I admit, I’m more used to lead characters that are generally good, competent people, with enough flaws to keep them real, and this was part of my discomfort with the book– I was never entirely sure I liked any of the characters.

However, even if it wasn’t comfortable, it was real. The story was compelling, and the experience of reading it got so intense for me at one point that I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done before. I peeked ahead to the ending, so that I could continue reading without the stress of worrying about the end result.

In the end, I found it intense, compelling, and very, very real.  I was very satisfied with the experience.

I read Things We Didn’t Say as part of a TLC Book Tour. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. For other opinions, check out the other tour stops:


 
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Posted by on July 6, 2011 in books, reviews, tour

 

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Review: The Art of Saying Goodbye by Ellyn Bache

28 Jun

The Art of Saying Goodbye by Ellyn BacheMy rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This book felt like it should have been a 4 star book, but it never quite lived up to the potential for me. There wasn’t anything really wrong with it, as such. There was quite a bit right with it. Still, I clearly enjoyed it, and am glad I read it.

Summary via Goodreads.com:

She was the thread that wove their tapestry together.

With a group of women as diverse as the ladies from Brightwood Trace, you might not think them to be close. There’s Julianne, a nurse with an unsettling psychic ability that allows her to literally feel what her patients feel, Andrea, a strong fortress sheltering a faltering core, Ginger, a mother torn between being a stay-at-home mom or following her career aspirations, and Iona, the oldest, whose feisty, no-nonsense attitude disarms even toughest of the tough. Not exactly the ingredients for the most cohesive cocktail . . . Until you add Paisely, the liveliest and friendliest of the clan, who breathed life into them all.

But when their glowing leader falls ill with cancer, it’s up to these women to do what Paisely has done for them since the beginning: lift her up. Overcoming and accepting the inevitability of loss, the women draw closer than ever; finding together the strength to embrace and cherish their lives with acceptance, gratitude and most importantly, love. Finally living with the vigor that Paisely has shown them from the start, they are able to see their lives in a new light, while learning to say goodbye to the brightest star they’ve ever known. Over the course of just three months, these four women will undergo a magnificent transformation that leaves nobody unchanged.

What was most interesting to me was the picture of the neighborhood, and the links between the women there, even more so than the women themselves.

The women each had her own story, and they all included Paisley at some point, at some time, to some degree. They included each other as well, but not as strongly.

Thinking back on the book, I’m a little puzzled as to why I didn’t feel more strongly about the characters, why they never came to life for me as individuals, not even Paisly.

On the other hand, the book really did feel honest and complete as these friends faced Paisly’s illness. The women don’t always know how to support each other when things get really rough– they are willing to pitch in to organize meals and prayer groups, but are unable to spend time with someone in crisis– human nature, but sad!  This experience causes the women to grow, individually and together.

I wish I was better able to express my thoughts about The Art of Saying Goodbye.  I appreciated the balance of the personalities of the characters, of the good and the bad in the lives of each one, and of the honest look at the reactions of good people to a terrible situation.  I just wish the characters had popped a little further off the page.

I read this book as part of a TLC Book Tour.  Thank you to TLC and William Morrow for arranging for me to receive a copy of The Art of Saying Goodbye to review. For other opinions, check out the other tour stops, most of which seemed to love the book!
TLC Book Tours

 
4 Comments

Posted by on June 28, 2011 in books, reviews

 

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Review: Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

22 Jun

Folly Beach: A Lowcountry TaleMy rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is the first Dorothea Benton Frank book I’ve read, but I don’t think it will be the last.

Summary via Goodreads:

With its sandy beaches and bohemian charms, surfers and suits alike consider Folly Beach to be one of South Carolina’s most historic and romantic spots. It is also the land of Cate Cooper’s childhood, the place where all the ghosts of her past roam freely. Cate never thought she’d wind up in this tiny cottage named the Porgy House on this breathtakingly lovely strip of coast. But circumstances have changed, thanks to her newly dead husband whose financial—and emotional—bull and mendacity have left Cate homeless, broke, and unmoored.

Yet Folly Beach holds more than just memories. Once upon a time another woman found unexpected bliss and comfort within its welcoming arms. An artist, writer, and colleague of the revered George Gershwin, Dorothy Heyward enjoyed the greatest moments of her life at Folly with her beloved husband, DuBose. And though the Heywards are long gone, their passion and spirit lingers in every mango sunset and gentle ocean breeze.

And for Cate, Folly, too, holds the promise of unexpected fulfillment when she is forced to look at her life and the zany characters that are her family anew. To her surprise, she will discover that you can go home again. Folly Beach doesn’t just hold the girl she once was . . . it also holds the promise of the woman she’s always wanted—and is finally ready—to become.

This is just the kind of book I like to use to kick back and relax. It is comfortable, with characters I enjoyed getting to know.

I admit, the beginning was a bit of a stretch for me. The book alternates between scenes from a script for a one-woman play and Cate’s life.

I had a hard time with the voice of the character in the play. As I got into Folly Beach, I grew to appreciate the play and the woman in it, but it was never as appealing to me as the rest of the book.

Then, I had a little trouble connecting with Cate as she and her situation were introduced. She knew there were problems in her life, but she didn’t realize how total they were until absolutely everything collapsed.

However, once the initial shock passed, Cate became a character I very much enjoyed knowing. She had enough strength to keep going and build a new life, enough humility to let friends and family help her get started, and was real enough that she didn’t get through the whole ordeal pain free.

What I enjoyed most about Folly Beach was the relationships between the characters– between Cate and her sister, between Cate and her (grown) children, between Cate and the Aunt that raised her. Each allowed a glimpse into a side of Cate that she wouldn’t show on her own.

Cate’s finding of her own path made for interesting reading as well, as her past theater career took a new path.    Her mentor here is a new acquaintance, one that starts to play a large role in her life.

I’d be remiss in not mentioning the South Carolina setting, which was almost a character into itself. It isn’t an area of the country I have any real familiarity with, either in person or through fiction, and I liked this introduction to it.

The historical aspect of the story (and the play that grew out of it) took longer to grow on me, and I never had the same enjoyment for Dorothy as I did for Cate.

There was one other aspect of the book that felt clunky to me at times. The book had Something To Say about and Important Subject– race in South Carolina, historically and today. To this end, many of the characters weren’t described physically, I think to introduce one “surprise” at the end. I appreciated the general reflections on what has and hasn’t changed, but it didn’t always flow smoothly with the story.

The strengths of Folly Beach outweigh the weaknesses, and I look forward to reading other books by this author.

I read Folly Beach for a TLC Book Tour.  Thank you to TLC and William Morrow for providing me a copy of this book to review. For other opinions on the book, check out the other tour stops:
TLC Book Tours

 
5 Comments

Posted by on June 22, 2011 in books, reviews

 

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Review: The Case for the Only Child by Susan Newman

21 Jun

The Case for the Only Child: Your Essential GuideThis really wasn’t the book I was hoping for. It may well be the book someone else needs.

Book description via Goodreads.com:

What’s really wrong with having one child? Is one enough for you? For your partner? What constitutes a complete, happy family? Will your only child be lonely, spoiled, bossy, selfish? Read this book and find out.

Despite the personal distress and pressure to have a second baby, the number of women having an only child has more than doubled in the last two decades. What most people don’t realize is that one-child families outnumber families with two children and have for more than two decades. In major metropolitan areas like New York, 30 percent of families have a singleton. Throughout the country people are following suit. And it’s no wonder why:

  • The worrisome biological clock (secondary infertility; older mothers)
  • Downtrodden job markets
  • How mothers working affects everyone in the family
  • Finances and housing and costs of education

These are only the few things that parents today (and parents to be) contend with when deciding to start a family and determining whether or not to stop after one. The time is right for a book that addresses the emerging type of nuclear family, one that consists of a solo child.

I have an only child. I’ve long since accepted this as fine for our family. I never worried about most of the things the author gives as concerns. Most of the reasons she discusses for having an only child weren’t really part of out decision making either, although I have thought of some as advantages after the fact.

Beyond that, my biggest disappointment is that Susan Newman only refers to the research fleetingly, with much more space being taken up by anecdotes from people she’s interviewed and commenters on her blog. I appreciated these, but really was looking for a more scholarly work– one that described the studies and spent a paragraph (rather than a single sentence) on the results.

But it wasn’t at all a bad book, just not the one I was looking for. If you are debating whether to have a second child, whether for personal, professional or logistical reasons, this book might help you make up your mind. If circumstances have determined you will only have one child, even if that wasn’t your choice, this may put your mind at ease. If you have an only child, and people are telling you your child will be spoiled, lonely, and generally unhappy, this book will address your concerns.

For me?  I didn’t take into account my career or family finances in making the choice– I left a successful career to become a stay at home mom to my one, and I know we would have made another child work financially. I always saw my daughter’s imaginary friends as signs of an active imagination, not loneliness to be cured by a sibling.  Instead of seeing her as spoiled, I saw her as happy to share since resources were plentiful.  My daughter decided early on she didn’t want to have siblings, just to borrow them sometimes, and even now she delights in the company of older and younger children.

For you?  I wish you happiness, whatever your family looks like.  Consider this book as a potential resource in getting to that point.

I read The Case for the Only Child for a TLC Book Tour.  Thank you to TLC and to the Publisher for the opportunity to review this book.  For more by/about the author, visit her website at www.susannewmanphd.com and her Singletons blog for Psychology Today.

For other opinions on the book, check out the other tour stops:

 
7 Comments

Posted by on June 21, 2011 in books, reviews

 

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Review: Almost Home by Mariah Stewart

19 May

Almost Home (Chesapeake Diaries #3)My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the first book in this series. I liked the second one a lot. This one was a solid “like”.

Summary via Goodreads.com:

When she was young, Steffie Wyler always knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life: 1. Make ice cream. 2. Marry the coolest boy in town. 3. Live happily ever after. These days, Steffie is the proud owner of One Scoop or Two, a wildly popular ice cream parlor. But the cool guy left town right after high school, before they could scratch the surface of their mutual attraction to see what, if anything, lay beneath. Steffie’s made a great life for herself in St. Dennis, but true love has never come knocking.

Wade MacGregor left for college in Texas and remained there to start a successful business with his best friend, Robin Kennedy, but he’s always felt something was missing. Then life throws him a curveball: A third partner has robbed the company blind, and Robin has died—but not before entrusting Wade with a precious secret. Now back in St. Dennis, Wade’s determined to do whatever it takes to protect his friend’s legacy—and to figure out, once and for all, if the sparks that fly whenever he’s with Steffie are just temporary fireworks or the lights in the window leading him home.

Certainly, I enjoyed returning to St. Dennis and all the characters from the previous books. I liked Steffie in her previous appearances, and had been looking forward to getting to know her better.

Part of the problem was that I didn’t feel like I had a deeper understanding of her character by the end of the book. Sure, she was fun to hang out with, and I really enjoyed the look into the working of her ice cream creation process, but I never felt I knew her as more than a good buddy.

Part of the problem is all mine. The base story was a very standard romance plot– girl falls in love with boy, boy moves away. Boy turns into man, girl turns into woman, but somehow something is missing in both of their lives until they meet each other again as adults.

For someone that likes romance novels, I have very little patience with the ideas of love at first sight and that there are matches that are fated to be. On the other hand, these are such staples of the genre that it makes no sense to fault a book for containing them.

Wade (the love interest)did have a creative story, one that I haven’t seen before. It had moments of both predictability and of being over the top in what it asked me to believe, but mostly it was the blend of fun and touching that I would hope for.

As with the other books in the series, the strength is in the characters and their relationships. I particularly like the links between friends that cross generations, and I think the way the books actually let some of the folks older even than me be real people is a very refreshing change of pace.

If you’ve been following the series, go ahead and pick this one up. If you haven’t, I’d suggest starting at the beginning.

TLC Book ToursI read Almost Home as part of a TLC Books Tour.  Thank you to TLC and Random House for providing me a copy for review.

For other opinions on this book, check out the other tour stops:


 
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Posted by on May 19, 2011 in books, reviews, tour

 

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