Weekly Book Haul......February 28, 2016

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews, The Sunday Salon is a new facebook group I've joined and Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia to be Continued.

What a week.  I am continuing to work out, but the scale isn't moving much.  Being mid-40's sucks.  When you're 20, you can go to the gym for three days and lose 10 pounds.  Middle aged weight loss? Not so easy.  But I'm determined.  I recently had some issues at work and as I was relating it to my therapist (yep, I have one, and I am not ashamed), he said my weight might be part of the problem.  He said research has proved that people are much more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to people who are in shape.  I was stunned silent.  I guess I've never considered my weight to be a career issue.  I'm not hideous, I dress professionally and prettily (I think), so that was a statement that made me come home and think.  I'm not sure what I think, but it's definitely on my mind.

I've been reading Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes this week, and it is soooo good.  I didn't read her first book, You, but I have definitely put this on my TBR list.

Fellside by M.R. Carey......The unmissable and highly original new thriller from

the author of the international phenomenon The Girl with all the Gifts.
Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It's not the kind of place you'd want to end up. But it's where Jess Moulston could be spending the rest of her life.

It's a place where even the walls whisper.

And one voice belongs to a little boy with a message for Jess.

Some Women by Emily Liebert......Annabel Ford has everything under

control, devoting her time to her twin boys and keeping her household running smoothly. But when her husband of a decade announces that he’s leaving, she’s blind-sided. And suddenly her world begins to unravel.

Piper Whitley has always done her best to balance it all—raising her daughter Fern by herself while advancing her career as a crime reporter. Only now that she’s finally met the man of her dreams, Fern’s absentee father shows up, throwing everything into a tailspin.

Married to the heir of a thriving media conglomerate, Mackenzie Mead has many reasons to count her blessings. But with an imperious mother-in-law—who’s also her boss—and a husband with whom she can no longer seem to connect, something has to give.

On the surface, these three women may not have much in common, but just when they each need someone to lean on, their lives are thrust together, forming unlikely friendships that help each woman navigate her new reality.

The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell.....Imagine that you live on a

picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people’s houses. You’ve known your neighbors for years and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really?

On a midsummer night, as a festive neighborhood party is taking place, preteen Pip discovers her thirteen-year-old sister Grace lying unconscious and bloody in a hidden corner of a lush rose garden. What really happened to her? And who is responsible?

Dark secrets, a devastating mystery, and the games both children and adults play all swirl together in this gripping novel, packed with utterly believable characters and page-turning suspense. Fans of Liane Moriarty and Jojo Moyes will be captivated by The Girls in the Garden, the next unforgettable novel by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell. 

The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig

What They Say.....New York Times bestselling authors Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig present a masterful collaboration—a rich, multigenerational novel of love and loss that spans half a century....

1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion.

Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate?  And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?  In their pursuit of answers, they find themselves drawn into the turbulent stories of Gilded Age Olive Van Alen, driven from riches to rags, who hired out as a servant in the very house her father designed, and Jazz Age Lucy Young, who came from Brooklyn to Manhattan in pursuit of the father she had never known.  But are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets that will be revealed in the Forgotten Room? 

The Forgotten Room, set in alternating time periods, is a sumptuous feast of a novel brought to vivid life by three brilliant storytellers.

What I Say.....Oh my goodness.  I could NOT put this book down.  I have read Karen White before and liked her, read Beatriz Williams and LOVED her, and have never read Lauren Willis but will now be looking for her.  

I assume each one wrote one of the storylines as this was the story of three generations connected by the same history and the same mansion, all in incredibly different ways.

The story spans generations, and goes before the Second World War, to the time of upstairs/downstairs mansions, the servants and the families that they serve.  I always find these types of stories so fascinating, as you see the class divide, but how many people crossed those lines for love. 

Olive's story was my favorite.  She wanted so badly to believe that love could break down the walls, but her doubt was her own worst enemy.

I don't want to give any spoilers away because I want everyone to read this for themselves.  It was very reminiscent of one of my all time favorite books, The Shell Seekers.  I am such a sucker for WWII stories, complete with star-crossed love.  In that era, people were more concerned about doing what was right rather than doing whatever they wanted.  

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy all the Karen White, Lauren Willig and Beatriz William's books.

Weekly Book Haul......February 21, 2016

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews, The Sunday Salon is a new facebook group I've joined and Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia to be Continued.

This has been a busy week - the weather has been fabulous - in the 80's every day.  Which means it's too hot for tights or pantyhose anymore, so guess what middle aged dummy went to get a spray tan yesterday?  This dummy.  And since I'm no spray tan expert, my palms are looking a little orange.  So I guess I'll be doing extra dishes today, praying that Dawn dishwashing liquid helps me out before I show up like a fool at work tomorrow with Oompa Loompa hands.

I finished a great book this week, Nowhere Girl.  I thought it was going to be the usual thriller, but it was completely unusual.  I'll post a review later this week.

I went for a long hike yesterday with a friend from Illinois.  She kept saying we were going for a walk, until we started climbing a mountain after I took a wrong turn.  It was pretty fun and a great head clearer.  4 miles and 22 flights of stairs climbed according to Fitbit.

If it stays this warm, it will soon be time to float in the pool and read all weekend.........

NetGalley

The One You Really Want by Jill Mansell.....When it comes to love, never

say never.

When Nancy discovers the expensive jewelry her husband’s been buying isn’t for her, she decamps from the Scottish countryside to her best friend Carmen’s posh Chelsea town house to sort things out.

Nancy finds herself in a surprising new world, where rock stars are nicer than you thought, social workers are not necessarily to be trusted, and the filthy rich are folks with problems just like you. Everybody falls in love with the wrong people, and the path to true love twists and turns before you discover who you really want.


Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes.....Charmingly murderous antihero Joe

continues his twisted quest for the perfect love in this thrilling follow-up to the “deeply dark yet mesmerizing” You (Booklist). When Joe follows the woman he wants to marry to the West Coast, he never imagines that his obsession will lead him to such tragedy…

After the heartbreak of losing his girlfriend, Beck, Joe Goldberg thought he’d never love again. But when mysterious Amy Adam begins working for Joe at Mooney Books, he finds himself obsessed with his new employee. Amy is Beck’s opposite—she hates Twitter, she doesn’t even have an email address, she's completely unsearchable online—and she quickly captures Joe’s heart. But just before Joe can ask Amy to marry him, she disappears, leaving a trail of clues in her wake.

Joe is then forced to do something so vile, so awful that he nearly loses his mind: he moves to Los Angeles to find Amy. He is tortured by a series of aspiring Angelenos—an insufferable stand-up comedian, philistine booksellers, a money-hungry nanny, and a slutty ghostwriter—before meeting his ticket to a more luxurious world: a surgically enhanced, social media–savvy heiress named Love Quinn. But Joe can’t stop stalking Amy, despite the world opening up to him with Love on his arm. Will Joe finally escape his sordid past? Or is Love just the latest casualty in Joe’s unrelenting search for the perfect match?

When We Meet Again by Kristin Harmel....Emily thinks she’s lost

everything…until a mysterious painting leads her to what she wants most in the world. The new novel from the author of international bestsellers The Sweetness of Forgetting and The Life Intended shows why her books are hailed as “engaging” (People), “absorbing” (Kirkus Reviews) and “enthralling” (Fresh Fiction).

Emily Emerson is used to being alone; her dad ran out on the family when she was a just a kid, her mom died when she was seventeen, and her beloved grandmother has just passed away as well. But when she’s laid off from her reporting job, she finds herself completely at sea…until the day she receives a beautiful, haunting painting of a young woman standing at the edge of a sugarcane field under a violet sky. That woman is recognizable as her grandmother—and the painting arrived with no identification other than a handwritten note saying, “He always loved her.”

Emily is hungry for roots and family, so she begins to dig. And as she does, she uncovers a fascinating era in American history. Her trail leads her to the POW internment camps of Florida, where German prisoners worked for American farmers...and sometimes fell in love with American women. But how does this all connect to the painting? The answer to that question will take Emily on a road that leads from the sweltering Everglades to Munich, Germany and back to the Atlanta art scene before she’s done.

Along the way, she finds herself tempted to tear down her carefully tended walls at last; she’s seeing another side of her father, and a new angle on her painful family history. But she still has secrets, ones she’s been keeping locked inside for years. Will this journey bring her the strength to confront them at last?

Only Ever You by Rebecca Drake.....Three-year-old Sophia Lassiter

disappears at the playground only to return after 40 frantic minutes-- but her mother Jill's relief is short lived. Jill is convinced the tiny dots on her daughter's arm are puncture marks. When doctors find no trace of drugs in her system, Jill accepts she won't ever know what happened during her daughter's absence and is simply grateful to have her home safely.

Except Sophia isn't safe. Three months later, she disappears again. This time from her bed at home, in the night. Working with the police and the community, Jill and her husband David are desperate to bring their little girl home. They remain hopeful---until information turns up suggesting their daughter was murdered, causing the police to turn their suspicions on the parents. Facing ugly family secrets and heart-rending evidence, Jill is still convinced her daughter is alive. But when the dragnet begins to close around them, Jill realizes the worst: if the police believe she has killed her daughter, that means they aren't out there looking for the real perpetrator. They aren't hunting for Sophie or the person who still has her.

Witches of Cambridge by Menna van Praag

What They Say.....Be careful what you wish for. If you're a witch, you might just get it.
 
Amandine Bisset has always had the power to feel the emotions of those around her. It's a secret she can share only with her friends—all professors, all witches—when they gather for the Cambridge University Society of Literature and Witchcraft. Amandine treasures these meetings but lately senses the ties among her colleagues beginning to unravel. If only she had her student Noa's power to hear the innermost thoughts of others, she might know how to patch things up. Unfortunately, Noa regards her gift as a curse. So when a seductive artist claims he can cure her, Noa jumps at the chance, no matter the cost.

Noa's not the only witch in over her head. Mathematics professor Kat has a serious case of unrequited love but refuses to cast spells to win anyone's heart. Her sister, Cosima, is not above using magic to get what she wants, sprinkling pastries in her bakery with equal parts sugar and enchantment. But when Cosima sets her sights on Kat's crush, she conjures up a dangerous love triangle.

As romance and longing swirl through every picturesque side street, the witches of Cambridge find their lives unexpectedly upended and changed in ways sometimes extraordinary, sometimes heartbreaking, but always enchanting.


What I Say.....I've read Menna Van Praag's Dress Shop of Dreams, and really enjoyed it, so I was happy to receive a copy of The Witches of Cambridge.  

It was a sweet read about four witches, connected as family and friends.  Amandine is worried that her husband is having an affair, Noa thinks her ability to read people's secrets means she will always be a freak, Kat is in love with her best friend, and Cosima is heartbroken after finding out her husband has had an affair and now is expecting a child with another woman.

I am a big fan of magical realism, and this was a good read, but early Alice Hoffman is what all magical realism is judged on for me, or even current Sarah Addison Allen.  Van Praag is close, and it's almost frustrating to see how close she comes, but it's just off enough to remind you that you are reading a book. 

SPOILER ALERT

Cosima's death seems to be almost an afterthought - although reference was made to her blood disorder, I didn't think her death was as inevitable as it seemed.  I mean really, what was the point?

I really enjoy Van Praag, and I'll continue to read her books.  They are an easy read, and definitely take you away from reality.

Weekly Book Haul.....February 14, 2016

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews, The Sunday Salon is a new facebook group I've joined and Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia to be Continued.

What a week!  I went hiking last Saturday with one of my best friends, and when I came home, I suddenly had a cough deep in my chest.  Didn't feel super on Sunday and decided it must have been allergies, probably triggered by the dumb idea of exercise.  I went to work, and started some Claritin and Flonase, met my daughter for dinner, went home and began feeling more like death.

I went to work and ran over to urgent care, where I was diagnosed with pneumonia.  So I went back to work and finished out my day in a haze of coughing and fever.  Then I came home and spent the next three days on the couch, moving as little as possible, cowering in fear of the p-word.  

Let me explain, two years ago, I got pneumonia - 3 times in six months.  It was awful, but initially I kept going to work no matter how bad I felt.  I didn't stay home until the coughing was so bad that I was peeing my pants (nothing would be more awkward than peeing your chair in the middle of a meeting).  Then I stayed home and worked, sitting on a beach towel for my coughing spells.

I was tested for Valley Fever (an Arizona disease), had multiple X-rays, took multiple antibiotics, had all sorts of blood tests.  Everything was normal, except the pneumonia that I couldn't shake.  I finally had to admit that my stress level, and my refusal to rest was the real problem.  I just wouldn't give myself time to heal, because in my mind, work can't run without me.  No matter that everyone else has no problem being home sick and not taking calls, or answering emails.  I feel that Catholic guilt that compels me to keep giving until it hurts (me).

So I forced myself to stay home and rest, in the hopes that I can just kick it once this time.  The plus side of being laid flat is that the reading was awesome.  I just finished The Forgotten Room.  It was amazing, a five star read for me.  But this week, I got the newest Sarah Pekkanen, and that is always cause for celebration.  Here's what else I added this week....

NetGalley

Most Wanted by Lisa Scottoline.....Lisa Scottoline delivers another searing,

powerful blockbuster novel that explores hot-button issues within the framework of an intricately plotted thriller. When a woman and her husband, desperate for a baby, find themselves unable to conceive, they decide to take further steps. Since it is the husband who is infertile, the heroine decides to use a donor. And all seems to be well. Three months pass and she is happily pregnant. But a shocking revelation occurs when she discovers that a man arrested for a series of brutal murders is her donor - the biological father of the child she is carrying. Delving deeper to uncover the truth, the heroine must face her worst fears, and confront a terrifying truth. Most Wanted is sure to be Lisa Scottoline's most discussed, bestselling novel yet.

Will You Won't You Want Me? by Nora Zelavansky.....Marjorie Plum isn't

your average washed up prom queen. After all, her New York City prep school was too cool for a royal court. Yet, ten years after high school graduation, she is undeniably stuck in the past and aching for that metaphorical tiara.

But when her life takes an unexpected turn, she is forced to start over, moving in to a tiny box of an apartment in Brooklyn with a musician roommate who looks like a pixie and talks like the Dalai Lama. Desperate to pay rent, she starts tutoring a precocious 11-year-old girl-who becomes the unknowing Ghost of Marjorie Past, beginning a surprise-filled journey towards adulthood, where she learns about herself from the most unlikely sources: a rekindled childhood love, a grumpy (but strangely adorable) new boss, even her tutee.

In Nora Zelevansky's charming second novel, Will You Won't You Want Me?, Marjorie soon realizes only she can decide: who is the real Marjorie Plum?

The Perfect Neighbors by Sara Pekkanen.....The page-turning new novel

from the internationally bestselling author known for her “conversational writing style and a knack for making readers care about her characters” (The Washington Post) takes us into the homes of an idyllic suburban neighborhood where we discover the burning secrets hiding just below the surface.

Bucolic Newport Cove, where spontaneous block parties occur on balmy nights and all of the streets are named for flowers, is proud of its distinction of being named one the top twenty safest neighborhoods in the US. It’s also one of the most secret-filled.

Kellie Scott has just returned to work after a decade of being a stay-at-home mom. She’s adjusting to high heels, scrambling to cook dinner for her family after a day at the office—and soaking in the dangerous attention of a very handsome, very married male colleague. Kellie’s neighbor Susan Barrett begins every day with fresh resolutions: she won’t eat any carbs, she’ll go to bed at a reasonable hour, and she’ll stop stalking her ex-husband and his new girlfriend. Gigi Kennedy seems to have it all together—except her teenage daughter has turned into a hostile stranger and her husband is running for Congress, which means her old skeletons are in danger of being brought into the light.

Then a new family moves to this quiet, tree-lined cul-de-sac. Tessa Campbell seems friendly enough to the other mothers, if a bit reserved. Then the neighbors notice that no one is ever invited to Tessa’s house. And soon, it becomes clear that Tessa is hiding the biggest secret of all.