Review: The Moon Sisters

The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

Jazz Moon is 22 years old, has just found her first real job, and wants to be a writer. Olivia Moon is 18 years old, has synesthesia, and sometimes fools around with boys more than she should. When their mother dies in questionable circumstances (accident or suicide?), the family deals with the gaping hole in the best ways they know how: their dad gets drunk, Jazz gets a job at a funeral home (the same one that served their mother), and Olivia stares at the sun until she is blinded. When Olivia sets out with her mother’s ashes to visit a spot that is significant in their mother’s life, Jazz is forced into her familiar (and unwilling) role as her sister’s guardian. What happens on this unplanned trip changes them both.

The story is told in alternating voices—Jazz’s and Olivia’s, with their mother’s letters to her estranged father thrown in as well. One of the most remarkable aspects of the book is how Olivia and Jazz are so different from one another, even openly hostile to one another much of the time, yet both are completely sympathetic characters. The synesthesia provides opportunities for Walsh to use images and metaphors that just make this book sparkle. I don’t say this much, but really, everything about this book was perfect: lots of symbolism, if you like that kind of thing, lots of character building, and an ending that both surprised me and hit just the right tone. Loved, loved, loved this book! 5/5* 

Book Review: Walking on Broken Glass

Author: Christa Allan

Title: Walking on Broken Glass

Description: Leah deals with her dysfunctional marriage and the loss of her baby by drinking. At the opening of this novel, she decides that she can’t spend the rest of her life drunk, and she makes the decision to check herself into a rehab center. This book centers on Leah’s rehab program and what happens when she returns home.

Review source: Free on kindle

Plot: Nothing is contrived or easy here. Leah’s relationship with her husband is teetering on the brink of divorce. Her rehabilitation isn’t pretty or effortless. This is a Christian novel in that Leah takes finding her higher power seriously, although the author doesn’t make Leah’s embrace of Christianity easy either.

Characters: Leah, her husband, and her best friend are the main characters, and they and the supporting characters are all real people with good and bad qualities who do good things and who also turn around and fail once in a while.

Writing style: Told in brutally honest first person.

Audience: Certainly anyone who is struggling with substance abuse—or with the death of a child or another tragedy—would empathize with Leah. Chick lit readers in general would probably enjoy this well-written book, if they didn’t mind the spiritual content.

Wrap-up: This isn’t the type of book I normally read, but I was engaged from the outset with Leah’s struggle to turn her life around. 3.5/5*

Book Review: Gone to Green

Author: Judy Christie

Title: Gone to Green

Description: Lois inherits a small-town newspaper (in Green, La.) and moves there to take over running the bi-weekly publication. She has been working in a large city newsroom, so she has to make adjustments: to a small town, to being the boss, and to living in the south, for starters.

Review source: I got the first four volumes of this series from the author last year at ALA. There is now a fifth volume.

Plot: Involves Lois meeting the citizens of Green and some nefarious land development going on.

Characters: Lots of small-town characters crop up; I’m sure they’ll be back in the next book. I most enjoyed the subplot of Lois befriending a rebellious teenager, but she also meets a catfish farmer/football coach, a lady pastor, etc.

Writing style: No distracting tendencies. Basic storytelling.

Audience: This is Christian fiction (Lois isn’t Christian, but everyone she meets is). Also chick lit.

Wrap-up: It was an enjoyable read. If I didn’t have the next three books, I probably wouldn’t seek them out, but since I do have them, I’ll read them. 3/5*

Book Review: Wife 22

Author: Melanie Gideon

Title: Wife 22

Description: Alice Buckle is nearly at the twenty year point in her marriage, but things are going wrong. Her son is probably gay, and her daughter probably has an eating disorder, not to mention that she and her husband are more like cooperative roommates than anything else. An email inviting her to be a participant in a marriage study seems to be offering her a way to engage in some self-reflection, so she signs up and becomes Wife 22.

Review source: Netgalley

Plot: The plot is really cute. Wife 22 is assigned to Researcher 101, and they quickly strike up a bond that might be more than professional. How is it that Researcher 101 is so in tune with her, yet her husband of nearly twenty years can be so oblivious? Meanwhile, her job is difficult, his job is difficult, and the kids are having teenage drama.

Characters: The main characters, Alice, William, and Researcher 101 are all quite engaging. Some of the secondary characters are not quite so well-written, but overall, they are a very lively bunch.

Writing style: This is where Gideon excels. The book has facebook posts, tweets, texts, IM chats, and of course the marriage research that Alice faithfully completes. Alice is a witty and sympathetic first-person narrator.

Audience: It’s chick lit, but definitely a cut above.

Wrap-up: I totally hated that it ended. And when it ended, I just wanted to start it again. This one surprised me with its utter charm! 5/5*

Book Review: The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.

Author: NicholeBernier

Title: The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.

Description: Kate’s friend Elizabeth passed away suddenly just before 9/11; Kate’s world is rocked by the twin losses. Now Kate discovers that Elizabeth has left her journals to her, asking only that she promise to read them from the beginning. As she does, Kate discovers that the friend she saw as uncomplicated and easygoing was completely different than she had imagined. Kate’s discoveries change the way she sees herself, her family, and her own life.

Review source: Netgalley

Plot: The gripping plot kept me interested all the way through. Before she even begins to read, Kate hears from Elizabeth’s husband that she was having an affair. The reasons for her friend’s betrayal, and even her death, are hidden in the journals.

Characters: Bernier shows how even close friends can appear one way, yet be completely different. The main characters (Kate & Elizabeth and their spouses) are finely drawn, their layers unwrapped as the story unfolds.

Writing style: For the most part I enjoyed it. The one portion that got a bit old was the constant agonizing by both women over their careers, largely lost to motherhood. I guess that is realistic, but I felt like it took up too much space in the book.

Audience: It’s chick lit.

Wrap-up: I’d call this a better-than-usual chick lit. Very little is as it initially appears, and the mystery kept me reading, as did the evolution of the characters and their marriages. 4/5*

Book Review: Millie's Fling

Author: Jill Mansell 

Title: Millie’s Fling

Description: Millie lives with her friend Heather who has a nice boyfriend and a crush on Lucas. Mille meets famous author Orla (are there really names like that in England?), who wants to write a book about a normal person’s life, and Millie is that perfectly normal person. Millie meets a widower who is not quite ready to get back into the dating scene.  Millie has a nasty job and a nasty mom. Orla has a nasty spouse. All of these ingredients combine in various ways throughout this over-long novel.

Review source: free on kindle

Plot: too much. I can’t empathize with someone who sings gorilla telegrams. The coincidences are way too coincidental.

Characters: Didn’t like any of ‘em. The women were too cutesy. The men were either perfect, gay (that is, perfect and completely unavailable), or complete cads.

Writing style: there’s this British style that I really don’t like. It’s hard to pin down what exactly about it I hate. It’s too “madcap.” Also contrived, labored, too many plates spinning. And tries too hard to be funny. Sophie Kinsella pulled it off, though, in her latest, that I reviewed not too long ago. So that’s it when it works, this book is it when it doesn’t quite.

Audience: chick lit

Wrap-up: Sorry, it’s a miss for me. 2/5*

I'm claiming this book for three reading challenges: the new author challenge (17/15), the why buy the cow challenge, and the unread books challenge. 

Book Review: Delivered with Love

Author: Sherry Kyle 

Title: Delivered with Love

Description: Jobless and newly homeless, Claire takes off in pursuit of her mother’s mysterious past. Arriving in the town from which her mother was sent a letter signed by the unknown “M,” Claire reconnects with an old neighbor, rents a house from someone who might have written the letter, and falls for her hunky neighbor who cooks for her (who wouldn’t?)

Review source: This book was a freebie on kindle.

Plot: Pretty clunky. It’s obvious early on that it’s Christian fiction of the most annoying sort. Lots of coincidences (although in Christian fiction, they’re never just coincidences, are they?)

Characters: The characters are also pretty generic. The abused wife. The hunky neighbor. The sweet old lady.

Writing style: Well, I didn’t HATE reading this book.

Audience: This is pretty much straight-up Christian romance/chick lit. If that’s totally your thing, give it a try. If it’s not, don’t bother.

Wrap-up: This book would have been better with fewer coincidences, a less naïve heroine, more subtle spirituality, and a less predictable plot. For starters. 2/5*

I'm claiming this book for three reading challenges: the new author challenge (14/15), the why buy the cow challenge, and the unread books challenge.

Book Review: I've Got Your Number

Author: Sophie Kinsella 

Title: I’ve Got Your Number

Description: Poppy is engaged to the suave intellectual, Magnus. Ten days before the wedding, she loses the (family heirloom) ring, but the same day, she finds a cell phone tossed into a trash can. Hilarity ensues.

Review source: Netgalley

Plot: The phone Poppy finds is connected to Sam, a businessman who rarely answers his messages. While she is waiting for her ring to turn up, Poppy does some tidying up of Sam’s emails. This results in just what you would expect: embarrassing situations and a good deal of lying to get out of them.

Characters: Kinsella does a good job of rounding out the main characters—Poppy is scattered, kind, and funny, while Sam is harried and brusque.

Writing style: The story builds and builds; by the climax, I was pretty much flipping the pages as fast as I could. There were plenty of funny bits.

Audience: Kinsella is one of the top names in chick lit, and she certainly delivers here. I doubt the appeal of the book to folks who don’t like chick lit, though.

Wrap-up: The book was admittedly lightweight, but kept me roundly entertained while I was reading it. 4/5*

I'm claiming this book for the new author challenge (11/15).

Book Review: A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty

Author: Joshilyn Jackson 

Title: A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty

Description:  When Big decides to uproot the beloved willow tree behind the house, the small box that is unearthed sets in motion a series of events that rocks the whole household—Big herself, the strong matriarch, Liza, Big’s daughter, who recently suffered a stroke and has lost the ability to communicate, and Mosey, Liza’s fifteen year-old daughter. Each of them takes a different approach to tying together the past and the present, eventually turning up blackmail, drugs, and a couple of old love affairs.

Review source: Netgalley

Plot: Jackson had me captivated from the first sentence. This was the first book in a long while that I couldn’t stand to put down and couldn’t stand to finish. I would literally sit at work and pine for it, waiting until I could get home and read some more.

Characters: The three main characters, Big, Liza, and Mosey, are wonderfully fleshed out. Liza seems the most problematic, since she is so severely limited by her physical handicap, but Jackson lets the reader know what is going on in her mind. Big and Mosey are both sympathetic and smart.

Writing style: I thought this might be magic realism when I started reading it, but it turned out not to be, though the style was like that. There is this sort of tale-weaving that goes on in magical realism that is just spellbinding, and this book had that same feel.

Audience: I would think that those who enjoy chick lit and those who enjoy cozy mysteries would both enjoy this book.

Wrap-up: It’s hardest for me to review books I love because I’m just so tempted to break out into song. Imagine, if you will, angel choirs singing about how fun this book is to read.  5/5*

I'm claiming this book for the new author challenge (8/15).

Book Review: Summer at Willow Lake

Author: Susan Wiggs 

Title: Summer at Willow Lake

Description (source): Real estate expert Olivia Bellamy reluctantly trades a trendy Manhattan summer for her family's old resort camp in the Catskills, where her primary task will be renovating the bungalow colony for her grandparents, who want one last summer together filled with fun, friends and family. A posh resort in its heyday, the camp is now in disarray and Olivia is forced to hire contractor Connor Davis—a still-smoldering flame from her own summers at camp. But as the days grow warm, not even the inviting blue waters of Willow Lake can cool the passions flaring or keep shocking secrets at bay. The nostalgic joy of summers past breathes new promise into a special place and people…a promise meant to last long after the season ends. (Amazon)

Review source: free for my kindle

Plot: There was lots going on in this book that was first of a series (that now has 8 titles). I counted four romances: the main couple, a couple of friends, a couple of teenagers, and flashbacks of an earlier romance set at the camp. Flashbacks throughout the book reveal the protagonists’ earlier relationship and how it went wrong. I found the various story lines interesting, even though it was a bit much to keep straight. Most of the secondary story lines were not resolved, as the author heads into book 2 of the series.

Characters: Most of the characters come across as sympathetic, especially the heroine, Lolly/Olivia, who was damaged by her parents’ divorce when she was a young adolescent and struggled to keep her footing through her teen years, and Connor, who had his father’s alcoholism and his family’s own breakup to deal with.

Writing style: I tend to like elaborate plots like this one, although I would have liked a little more resolution; while the main couple’s relationship was resolved, none of the other story lines were.

Audience: This book is fairly straightforward chick lit, which I like every once in awhile. I read it in one long, quiet day at the beach.

Wrap-up: I’ll be looking for book two in the series, just to see if any of the plot lines are tied up. But I won’t be looking urgently. This book gets 4/5*.

I'm claiming this book for three reading challenges: the new author challenge (2/15), the unread books challenge, and the Why Buy the Cow challenge (2/12).