ten beach road series SPOILERS.

I was living on lake time last week which is why I went missing. Since I'm teaching summer school (which starts right now), I decided to take the week of the 4th completely off. No editing, no writing, just a lot of ice cream and s'mores. And of course reading, because I never need a vacation from that.

My first lakeside read was Wendy Wax's latest Ten Beach Road novel, Sunshine Beach. I love the easy breeziness of this series, and this installment even had an air of mystery about it. The ladies are back at Bella Flora, still recovering from Deidra's death and their walking away from the network. Trying to figure out their next moves. After Kyra stumbles upon an abandoned hotel, the crew decides to take matters into their own hands and do the show on their terms, their way. The only thing they are missing is money and permission to renovate the old hotel which has a tragic history. Sunshine Beach was definitely a nice addition to the series, but the end had me more anxious for the next one.

sex in china.

The Incarnations by Susan Barker is a story woven together in 3 parts: A taxi driver named Wang’s present (2007 Beijing) life with his wife and child, Wang’s own (messed up) childhood and early adulthood, and the letters from Wang’s "soul mate", the person (not identified until the end) who has followed him from one life to the next, always meeting and developing some sort of relationship as they go along, not always romantic. They are not star-crossed lovers. There is no, "if you're a bird, I'm a bird." It's not that kind of story. But I promise you, you haven't read a novel about China quite like this one.

summer lovin'

I haven't read a Melody Carlson book in ages, and I missed her, so when my mom told me about her new (or not so new) Follow Your Heart series, I was like GIMME. And although it was a little weird reading a romance novel that was heavy on the sweet instead of the skanky, it was a nice change of pace. A little corny sometimes, but in a good way.

Anna Gordon had a rough childhood. She lived with her grandparents for most of it due to her drug addict parents. She was smart, gorgeous, went to college, started to design a life she loved until her grandpa died and she moved in with her grandma and then two years went by and she just felt....stuck. She was managing a grubby motel in her small town and her dreams of being in the legit hospitality business seemed to get further and further away. Until she ran into a childhood friend who hooked her up with a job in New York City working at a chic boutique hotel. In a week, Anna's life went from blah to gah! Because not only does she move to the big city she also meets a guy. Or re-meets. Gets reacquainted. Anyways, you'll have to see for yourself.

jojo before me.

REPOST: Because it's in theatres today and I can't wait to see it!

 

Check out this trailer, I cry every time I watch it.

Guys. Jojo Moyes. I can't even properly put into worlds how much her book-to-movie (out in June) Me Before You affected me after I turned the last page. I literally had NO idea how it was going to turn out. And I am not planning on spoiling it for you, but I am still recovering.

Louisa Clark grew up in a lower class home in a small tourist town outside of London. Her life was small. She worked at a café for six years, was in a mediocre relationship for seven. Lived with her parents, who honestly needed her to help pay the bills. She was twenty-six and had never done much of anything at all. Until her café closes, she's forced to find another position, and she finds Will. A former wild child/successful businessman turned quadriplegic because of a careless accident and is now forced to live out his life in a wheelchair, unable to even feed himself. Louisa becomes his caregiver, and discovers soon after why she was hired by his mother with absolutely no experience. Will gave his parents six months. Six more months for him to live, and then he was going to end things. Will's mother hoped that Louisa might be the person to show Will that life is worth living, even his.

I honestly feel like I can't say anything else. But this is quite the love story.

both sides of war.

Honestly, I didn't think The Translation of Love by Lynne Kutsukake would be a book I would enjoy. I typically like to read books I can relate to, or a,t least wrap my head around and although I could not see myself in her shoes, 13-year-old Aya Shimamura was such an interesting character, I could not put this book down.

Set in post-war Japan, it's 1947. Aya and her father have been deported back to Japan after living in Canada all of Aya's life and now she must adjust to an entirely different culture that is supposed to be hers. In school, where she barely speaks Japanese, Aya is seated in class next to Fumi, who's older sister disappeared after leaving home to become a dance girl because jobs are so scarce. Together, with the help of an unlikely source, these two girls set off to find this missing girl, and a coming of age adventure begins.

lots of depth for a YA novel.

After being abandoned by her parents, and then raised by her grandmother, Mercy Louis has turned into an extremely successful teenager. She's the best basketball player in the state, popular, beautiful. Girl's going places. Or is she? Because nothing is ever as it seems, especially in this debut novel by Keija Parssinen.

The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is honestly the unraveling of an entire Texas town after a premature infant is found in the garbage and every girl at Mercy's school is a suspect. And this isn't the only news or even the craziest thing that happens. AND don't even get me started on Mercy Louis's grandmother who thinks the Rapture is going to happen any day and the world is going to end. Add that to the cryptic letters she's receiving from the mother who left her behind, and Mercy Louis is going to crack.

domestic suspense.

In a world where people are going to extreme measures to be parents, Lisa Scottoline's latest novel, Most Wanted is intense, emotional, and just plain brilliant. Oh, and kind of scary.

Marcus and Christine Nilsson want a baby. Bad. Bad enough that when they discover Marcus is infertile, they decide to use a sperm donor so that Christine can get pregnant. Months pass, Christine is pregnant, all is right with the world, UNTIL...Christine sees her donor on the news being arrested for multiple murders. Violent murders. Horrendous murders. But did he really do it? And if he did, will Christine be able to get past the fact that her baby's biological father is a murderer?

family, race, history.

What I love more than fiction is realistic fiction. I have to be in the right mood to read novels where characters have supernatural powers or with wild plotlines (Harry Potter not included, obviously). Most of the time I want to sit down and open a novel that could happen to anyone. Well, the right anyone. And that's exactly what Kaitlyn Greenidge's debut novel We Love You, Charlie Freeman was. A novel so realistic, it almost happened to her own family.

Kaitlyn got the idea for this novel from her mother who was asked, before Kaitlyn was born, to raise a chimpanzee along with her oldest daughter (who was two at the time). Her mother was fluent in sign language, and it would all be part of an experiment for some unnamed institute. Her mother declined, not able to raise a chimp as her own and then have it end. It was this story that gave Kaitlyn the premise for her novel.

The Freeman family (who are all fluent in sign language) left their home in Boston for an apartment at the Toneybee Institute to add a chimpanzee named Charlie to their family of four as part of a twisted experiment. Adding together the moving to an almost all-white community and their strange living situation, the Freeman's feel isolated and their family dynamic begins to fall apart.

if you haven't read ME BEFORE YOU, do not read this.

ME BEFORE YOU SPOILERS WILL BE FOUND HERE.

 

 

 

 

I was feeling pretty discouraged after reading and crying through Me Before You by Jojo Moyes as Will decided to take the plunge and go with the assisted suicide even though Lou was totally in love with him and him with her. It broke my heart into a million itty bitty pieces.

It took me a full week to recover before I could begin the sequel, After You which followed Lou's life after Will ended his. It was REALLY hard to see Lou so low. I didn't even recognize her on the page, if that makes any sense. After traveling to Paris to be able to read the letter Will wrote to her (those were the rules), receiving some money so that she could really start to live, Lou ended up in London, living in a flat she barely furnished because she felt funny using Will's money even though it was given to her with love. She was working a crappy job. On the outs with her family because they disagreed with her decision to be there for Will in Switzerland. And then, she fell off the roof. Now, I'm not going to spoil this one.

 

It took me a minute to adjust to the new Lou, but I'm glad that I gave Moyes a chance because I really did end up loving the book, and who Lou became after Will. 

enjoyable read.

There are two terrific storylines in Mary Higgins Clark's latest mystery novel, As Time Goes By. The main plot is a murder trial that involves the socialite wife of an Alzheimer’s victim who is being charged for his murder. Betsy Grant refuses to take a plea deal for the murder of her husband, and is determined to prove her innocence in a trial. The television journalist assigned to the trial, Delaney Wright believes Betsy is innocent and is determined to help, while also juggling her own personal life. She wants to find her birthmother and enlisted her friends Alvirah and Willy (sound familiar?) to help.

It was all a little predictable, but after watching Narcos on Netflix and being scarred for life, I needed a novel that was interesting but didn't give me nightmares, and this was definitely the one.

secrets and politics.

America is wildly political all of the sudden, so I thought now's the time to read Tiny Little Thing by Beatriz Williams which follows Christina “Tiny” Hardcastle and her husband, Frank as he runs for a Massachusetts seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's 1966, and Tiny has been groomed for this moment, to be the wife of someone great. The perfect young political wife to the perfect young up-and-coming politician. But we all know, no one is as perfect as they seem.

Both Tiny and Frank have their secrets, and if they get out, the picture they have worked so hard to maintain, will shatter. But will that be the worst thing for Tiny?

creepy, creepy glen.

Well, you really can't trust anyone. Just a lesson I learned reading Fiona Barton's debut novel The Widow which had four very different narrators, and I'm over here like, who do I trust?

Jean Taylor's husband was accused of abducting a child but never convicted. Jean stood by her man despite a lot of negative press. Now that he's dead, Jean must decide if she wants to tell her story. Told mostly through the eyes of Jean, but also by the police officer in charge, the mother of the victim, and the journalist who showed up at her doorstep to get the untold story, Barton creates a very interesting and eerie story that should not be compared to recently popular thrillers.

Did you ever watch the TV show Motive? It shows the audience who committed the murder right at the beginning, and then through the entire episode you piece together the motive, and it's always surprising. That's a good example of the format of this novel.

tales of war.

I'm a sucker for a novel with a good title. Sebastian Faulks' Where My Heart Used to Beat is exactly what I'm talking about. How could anyone walk by a title like that and not pick it up? Seriously, an impossible feat.

Like many English boys, Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Hendricks grew up fatherless after World War I, and fighting himself in World War II left him broken. Until an older gentleman, Dr. Pereira, who fought with Robert's father in the first world war, sent him a letter. Now it's 1980, and Robert travels to the coast of France to visit (ironically) the only person who ever managed to get him to open up about his past, taking readers back in time to all of his losses, including the woman who betrayed him. Sebastian Faulks fans will not be disappointed by this beautifully written novel.

catholic teen fiction.

I'm not Catholic. But many of my friends and students are. I know that all of the girls going to church school working towards their confirmation would really appreciate a Catholic teen fiction read like A Single Bead by Stephanie Engelman for a lot of reasons. One being that this read will show a little more appreciate for their religion and the power of prayer.

A year after sixteen-year-old Katelyn Roberts' grandmother dies in a plane crash, a single rosary bead (that included initials) is found from the rosary her grandmother had with her on the plane. Her mother has been in a deep dark depression since the tragic loss, causing Kate to lose her faith in God. Throughout the story, Kate talks to and meets other people who find her grandmother’s beads and share the miracles that have occurred, giving comfort to Kate and her family, helping her find her faith again.

black widow.

I like a lot of novels. But you can always tell when I REALLY like a novel. There are symptoms. I have bags under my eyes. I'm (extra) antisocial. My husband has to eat eggs for dinner. I said goodbye to everyone before diving into Orchard Grove by Vincent Zandri, the premise alone, wow.

Ethan Forrester has officially fallen from grace as a screenwriter. He and his wife, Susan are officially living in Albany, New York off HER salary as a teacher, and the pot they have growing in the backyard. Enter Lana, their new seductive next door neighbor who just happens to be a psychopath. When she sinks her teeth into Ethan, it's all over for him, and lots of other people. This novel has sex, passion, violence, and murder, all of the makings of a great thriller.

bunhead.

I find ballet to be such a romantic form of expression, and I appreciate the time and effort put in by those ballerinas who take on dancing as a career. The pain, the body issues, the things they give up. I have a respect for their will to "make it." The whole idea is fascinating to me. I could never give myself to something like that.

 

Girl Through Glass is Sari Wilson's debut novel set in 1970's New York City with a promising ballet student named Mira. When her parent's marriage unravels, Mira seeks structure that only the ballet world can give her. Wilson's narrative does have a heavy focus on dance and all that it costs our heroine, but the way she alternates past and present day creates a coming-of-age story you won't soon forget.

a comedy about suicide.

I am always looking for novels with a unique storyline, if you are the same you must check out A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell which came out in paperback last month.

This novel is set in 1999. Back in 1999 my mom had our basement packed with canned goods and thermal sleeping bags. In this story, three sisters are planning their suicide. Tomato, tomato. But on a more serious note, Lady, Vee, and Delph live together in Manhattan, and considering their family history, know that one or all will succumb to the family curse of dying by their own hand, so they decide to die together. Stop the madness. End the bloodlines. But before they go through with it, they take readers back in time, telling their family history from the beginning. I don't know how a story can be hilarious and depressing at the same time, but Mitchell makes it happen. I spent the entire novel hoping the sisters would find a light out of such darkness.

a little too real.

First things first. I would definitely recommend you adding What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross to your 2016 Must-Read List. If you don't make lists like this, I also recommend that you start.

The only thing missing from Lucy Wakefield's idyllic life is a child. When it becomes obvious that having her own was not going to happen, Lucy got desperate. When her husband (who wouldn't even consider adoption) leaves her for a younger woman, Lucy gets really desperate. Desperate enough to take a baby (Marilyn's baby) from a shopping cart and raise her as her own. Over two decades later, when 21-year-old Mia discovers the truth about Lucy's crime, everything goes to hell as you can imagine.

What Was Mine is written in short chapters, each from the point-of-view of the three main characters in the book, Lucy, Mia and Marilyn. It's perfectly paced, emotional, and suspenseful, especially if you're a mother.

israeli mystery.

When young volunteer at the Organization for a Migrant Aid, Michal Poleg is found dead after actively helping refugees and asylum seekers in Israel, Officer Anat Nachiamas is given her first lead on a murder investigation. Things get super confusing super quickly when a refugee that Poleg gave her time and energy to mentor confesses to the murder. Nachiamas, and her boss, Itai Fisher know it in their bones that he's not really the one to blame and begin to work together to find the real killer.

The topic, both social and political, may be a serious one (and it's not for everyone), but author Liad Shoham leaves room for romance and humor, and I just love a male writer who creates a strong female heroine. Asylum City is smart and the writing experienced.

not your everyday mystery.

Set at the close of the 19th century, Arden is a famous FEMALE illusionist who is being accused of her husband's murder. She has one night to prove her innocence. And that my friends, is The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister. A breath of fresh air really, extremely well-written, and filled with twists unlike any novel I have read recently. The story goes back and forth between Arden telling her tale and the point of view of Officer Holt who arrested her. Honestly? I preferred Arden's narrative. Her life story and everything that has happened to her up until that point absorbed all of my attention. I ate, slept and dreamt this novel, until the end. Still worth the read, but the end did feel a little rushed.