Book: The Last Lifeboat

 Book: The Last Life Boat

Author: Hazel Gaynor

Pages: 384

This is my 75th read for the year

This is the story of two women-  Alice King and Lily Nicols.  During World War II these two women had to make a choice.  Alice -a young woman who finds comfort among books and a quiet life decides to become an escort for Children leaving the country during the war.  Lily - a widow who has two young children decides that the safest thing for them would be to put them on a boat to Canada until the war is over.  When tragedy strikes on the children's passage to America, Lily and Alice work tirelessly to save as many children as they can - one from a life boat stranded in the Ocean and one at home trying to convince the people in power that there are indeed survivors of the ship.  As time runs out to save those that remain, their harrowing efforts make all the difference.

This was a pretty good book.  It is based on a true story and while the people in the book are all fictional, the situation was not.  It is a heartbreaking tale because many children and adults lost their lives trying to get these children out of England to Canada.  Even the people on the life boat - not all survived once they set out for help.  The book is well written - chapters that go back and forth between Lily and Alice's story - filling in their lives before this situation.   Has a good epilogue to wrap up the story as well.

Stars: 4

Book: Klara and the Sun

 Book: Klara and the Sun

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Pages: 320

This is my 74th read for the year

This is the story of an AI named Klara.  She is an artificial friend that is hoping that the right child will come into her store one day and chose her to take home.  When a young girl named Josie choses her, Klara feels like she is the perfect person for her.  Josie has been ill all of her life, and Klara feels that she can figure out how to make Josie well.  As Klara gets to know Josie and her family and friends, she learns what it means to be a part of a family even when that family is dealing with a serious illness.

This was a pretty good book.  I have never read Ishiguro's other book - Never Let Me Go - but I have seen the move.  I thought I would try this one, and I did enjoy it.  Klara is a sweet character and you are rooting the whole time for Josie to get well.  I would say that some of the side characters are a bit odd, and the author seems to get a little lost in the weeds with some of the dialogue, but overall, a good story.

Stars: 4

Book: Someone Else's Shoes

 Book: Someone Else's Shoes

Author: Jojo Moyes

Pages: 448

This is my 73rd read for the year

This is the story of two women.  Nisha Cantor who has lived a life or wealth and privledge the last two decades, and Sam Kemp whose life is falling apart.  When Sam accidentally takes Nisha's bag from the gym, she sees that there is a very expensive pair of shoes that she somehow has to get back to their owner.  Her friends encourage her to try them on and go out on the town for the evening to life Sam's spirits.  Feeling more confident than she has in a long time, she puts off returning the clothes and shoes that were in that bag because she has other things that she needs to deal with.

Meanwhile Nisha has been completely cut off from her husband and served divorce papers.  She is blindsided by the sudden turn of events in her life - and as she is left with nothing for the first time in a long time, she has to try and figure out how to support herself, how to get what she feels like she is owed, and also get her bag back.  When the two women finally meet, and their lives interwine, they both realize what they had been missing all along.

This was an okay book.  I am a Moyes fan and read most of her books, but this one wasn't among my favorites.  First - I hated all the main characters.  The women were awful/wishy washy, and the men were equally as terrible.  The only good characters were the best friends of each of the women.  The story dragged some - it could have been a lot shorter.  I found myself wanting to skip ahead with a lot of wordy chapters that I felt could have been eliminated.  I will say that the ending was satisfactory.  You knew pretty soon what was going on with the shoes and where the plot was going, but I like a good epilogue all the same.

Stars: 3

Book: The Close

 Book: The Close

Author: Jane Casey

Pages: 416

This is my 72nd read for the year

This is the story of DS Maeve Kerrigan.  She and DI Josh Derwent have been assigned to pretend to be a couple in a neighborhood where a murder has occured.  They need to fool their neighbors into thinking that they are house and dog sitters while trying to figure out who the murderer is.  When a second person is murdered, the clock speeds up for these two detectives to figure out what is going on before anyone else gets hurt.

This is a pretty good book.  The two main characters were likable and the scenes with the dog they were watching were hysterical and my favorite part of the book.  The mystery wasn't easy to figure out.  What I didn't like was how much time they spent on the "possible romance" that might be developing between Maeve and Josh. And the ending was a huge let down.  It just....ended.  Very disatisfying.

I am glad I read it, but it was far from my favorite "who done it" novel.

Stars: 3

Book: Joyride

 Book: Joyride

Author: Guy Adams

Pages: 256

This is my 71st read for the year

This is a story where teenagers are behaving strangely.  One runs her car through a shop window.  One sets fire to his house while his family is inside.  One jumps off the roof of their school but seems to be happy about it.  A teacher at their school - Mrs. Quill - needs to get to the bottom of what is happening before another students hurts themself or others.

I want to start by saying that I picked up this book at a used bookstore by accident.  I was checking out, and must have scooped it into my pile without realizing it.  It cost me $3 and so I figured what the heck - I would give it a try.  It wasn't great.  But again - that isn't completely the books fault.  After I read it, I went online to look it up and realized it is book 2 or 3 in a series AND based on a TV show (a spin off of Dr. Who). I was completely lost in the story.  It was random, and disjointed, and the story just moved very quickly without a lot of depth.  Maybe I will try the show to see if that helps.  I liked the idea of it - seemed like an interesting mystery.  But the book just didn't live up to the back cover.

Stars: 2

Book: Murder Your Employer: A McMasters Guide To Homicide

 Book: Murder Your Employer: A McMasters Guide To Homicide

Author: Rupert Holmes

Pages: 400

This is my 70th read of the year

This is the story of students who attend the McMasters School of Homicidal Arts.  It follows three people (who are all adults at the time they become students) who want to muder someone in their life.  They have all made failed attempts by the time the school finds them and encourages them to attend their school to be successful.  The mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder.

This book was dull.  I listened to it when it wasn't available at the library, and it barely held my attention.  It started out strong.  I like the concept and Neil Patrick Harris is one of the readers.  So I had high hopes.  But it is boring and overly wordy.  It is overly detailed and action scenes so drawn out with uncessary explanation that I struggled to keep engaged.  I should have quit, but did want to see if it improved or what the end result was.  In the end, it wasn't worth it.

I would skip this one.

Stars: 2.5

Book: Lark Ascending

 Book: Lark Ascending

Author: Silas House

Pages: 288

This is my 69th read for the year

This is the story about Lark.  He and his family art tryin to escape the religious nationalism that has befell the United States.  They travel from Maryland to Maine to live remotely and decide what to do next.  For awhile - they are safe in Maine but the family knows it won't be forever.  They secure passage to Ireland on a boat understanding that Ireland is one of the last places that is still accepting refugees.  As they travel, disaster strikes, and when Lark lands in Ireland he needs to figure out what he is going to do in order to survive.  He is the sole survivor of the voyage, and decides he is going to try and get to where his family was heading - Glendalough.  He meets some unlikely companions on his journey and in the end discovers who he is and what is truly important to him.

This was a fair book.  It is a short book and an easy read.  There is a lot of nice detail and the flow is good.  Lark is a likeable character but his traveling companions (which I will not spoil) actually made the book for me.  There is some backstory that leads the reader to understand what lead to where the world was once we met Lark, but I could have used more.  It has a nice ending, but with the shortness of the book, it did leave me a little wanting for more details along the way.  Also - this book could have used a better editor.  Could have just been the addition I received but there was a few repeated sentences that were not caught and some spelling errors.

Stars: 3 

Book: The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing,Writing and Healing

 Book: The Many Lives of Mama Love

Author: Laura Love Hardin

Pages: 320

This is my 68th read for the year

This is the memoir of the author Lara Love Hardin.  She had what many could only dream of - a master degree and a big house in a good neighborhood.  But she was hiding a terrible secret.  She was addicted to heroin and stealing her neighbor's credit cards to fund her addiction.  She is caught and convicted on 32 felonies.  In prison she tries to kick her drug habt, and turn herself around.  She knows if she doesn't get herself clean, she will lose custody of her youngest son who is only 4.  Since her husband is also convicted and has a serious heroine addiction as well, she is her son's only hope.  She has some ups and downs on her path to beating her addiction, but in the end, she is released from prison into a program that helps her get back on her feet.  Soon she is offered a job by a man that will change her life, and becomes a ghost writer.  Very few people know her true path and Lara is crippled by her shame.  With some encouragement she faces her path and realizes that she can use what she has learned to help other women beat their own demons.

This was a good book.  At first I struggled with it because the story was off and running with Laura in her 40s - her drug habit not a new things, but not well explained in the book.  The past she blames is only vaguely mentioned and I didn't feel we got enough in this book of her backstory to make me be able to piece together a symtpahizing ear.  She had a drug habit of pills in the past and had been in recovery when she met her second husband who was a herion addicted mortgage broker.  But I wanted more - more of this past that she claims led to where she landed.  BUT - as the book progressed, and I saw what Lara did to turn herself around not only for her son but for herself, and the person she became -I was blown away by her power.  The people who had faith in her and the man who ultimately gave her the job that changed her life are to be commended.  I know most of us would judge before we helped, so I am always grateful for people who take chances on those who are at their lowest.  Because for Lara - it made all the difference.

This one is worth a read.

Stars: 4.5

Book: All The Dangerous Things

 Book: All The Dangerous Things

Author: Stacy Willingham

Pages: 336

This is my 67th read for the year

This is the story of Isabelle Drake.  A year ago, her 18 month old son was taken from his crib while she and her husband slept down the hall.  The police have no leads and Isabelle has not been able to sleep for a year.  Literally.  Besides small micro sleeps during the day, the trauma of losing her son has caused sleep to elude her.  No matter what she tries, she cannot rest.  Her lack of sleep is interferring with her everyday life but she pushes on.  She gives talks in hopes that maybe the person who took her son shows up in her audience.  When she is approached by a podcaster to take her story to the airwaves, she thinks this might be her last hope.  As she pieces together what happened to her as a young girl and what is happening to her now in the podcast, new clues to Mason's possible location come to light.  She hopes she can find him before it is too late.

This one was better than the last book of hers I read.  I didn't realize I had picked up two of hers, but I will give this one more credit.  The mystery was a bit more of a surprise.  I thought by chapter two I had figured out where it was going, but I was pleasantly wrong.  This is a dual timeline book- it goes back and forth between Isabelle as a young girl and a tragedy that her family went through, and her present day.  I will say the author's attempt to throw off the reader lead down several paths that muddled the story a bit, but not enought o make me happy that I was wrong about the final twist.  

Stars: 3

Flicker In The Dark

 Book: Flicker In The Dark

Author: Stacy Willingham

Pages: 384

Thisis my 66th read for the year

This is the story of Chloe Davis.  20 years ago her father was arrested for the murder of 6 teenage girls.  He is put away for life and Chloe never say or spoke to him again.  She and her older brother and mother tried to move on, but her mother never really recovered from the shock of the whole ordeal.  Now Chloe is grown up and getting married.  As she is busy planning a wedding and being a successful psychologist, murders of young girls start again.  This seems to be the work of a copy cat, but the killings are happening a little too close to home for Chloe.  A reporter approaches Chloe, and gets her looking at the different angles and trying to figure out who is killing these girls and is it possible her dad is involved.

This was an okay book.  I was a little tense reading it. It was pretty easy to figure out who the killer was almost from the beginning.  The author does send you down what she believes to be some possible paths to different people, but it really was clear.  There are a few plot holes that bothered me - things that were kind of minor, but left me saying "did I miss something?"  Also - Chloe?  Awful character.  Almost too dumb.  Lots of words in this book just to fill pages - too much description that isn't necessary.

So......eh.  I know a lot of people liked it, and I didn't hate it.  It was just okay.

Stars: 3

Book: Home Before Dark

Book: Home Before Dark

Author: Riley Sager

Pages: 416

This is my 65th read for the year

This is the story of Maggie Holt.  When she was a little girl, she lived in a big old house less than a month before her parents packed her up, moved, and never looked back.  Maggie has spent her whole life wondering why.  Her dad became famous writing a ghost story about their time there which followed Maggie her whole life.  Maggie was always sure it was made up, but now that she is an adult and the house has been left to her after her dad died - she isn't so sure.  Things are happening in the house, and as she interviews and talks to people who were there while her family lived in that house all those years ago, she isn't sure what to believe.  As things progress, the truth of what happened to her family as a child and who was responsible comes to light.  

This was a pretty good book.  It is a decent thriller that was fun to listen to.  The chapters go back and forth from the Present with Maggie as an adult and her dad when Maggie was a little girl.  You do eventually figure out who is causing the issues, and the truth comes out but for awhile you really do wonder where it is going.  The ending wasn't surprising, but it wasn't bad either.  I would say my only drawbacks were that Maggie is a bit of a brat as a young adult.  Her character is slightly immature - forgiving and hating people in quite the pendulum swing.  The other was one line that made me roll my eyes when she was reading a letter from her dad who said that he and her mother had gone for a night away and "connected several times".  I am thinking the author doesn't have kids because I cannot imagine any scenario where a parent would share that - especially in a letter.  It was just dumb and stuck with me.

Anyway- a good little thriller.  I am going to check out a few of his other books in the future.

Stars: 3.5

 

Book: Pineapple Street

 Book: Pineapple Street

Author: Jenny Jackson

Pages: 320

This is my 64th read for the year

This is the story of the Stockton family - an extremely rich family that lives in New York.  The three children - Darley, the eldest (who gave up her inheritance because she refused to have her new husband sign a prenup when they got married), Cord (who married a middle class girl that is sure she will never fit in or be accepted by this family), and Georgiana (who is the youngest by far and who falls in love with someone she cannot have) and their parents have never wanted for anything.  They are old money and their world is one that most people wish they could have.  Yet like most families, that money does not solve all their problems.

I don't have much to say about this one.  I had seen it reviewed on a facebook book page I follow and thought it would make a good summer read.  It was just okay.  I hated just about all the characters.  Except Malcom who is Darley's husband.  The worst was Gerogiana - just a complete rich brat that never really redeemed herself in my opinion, even though the author tried to do so in the end.  I just could not care for anyone in these stories - their life so absurd.  I finished it, but I would not recommend it.

Stars: 2.5