The Summer Wind by Mary Alice Monroe

Hmmm....I've read one of Mary Alice Monroe's books before and I liked it enough to read the sequel.  So I was excited to get this advanced copy from NetGalley because I remember her as being a great beach read.
So I started the book with high hopes.  After about 50 pages, I started getting confused.  I felt like maybe I had read the book before.  After 75 pages, I was convinced I had read this book.
Thank God for Goodreads.  I went back and looked through my "read" history and found the book I had read.  It was "Swimming Lessons" and it was published in 2007.
So now I knew this couldn't be the same book, but the entire time I read it, I was feeling a little bored, because I felt like I knew how it was going to end.
Elderly women living in beach cottages, teaching their grown children and/or grandchildren life lessons, grown women with absentee alcoholic fathers, emotional connections to sea life, unhappy marriages due to following the rules of the southern belle.  All of the same story lines are present, just tweaked a little bit.
That isn't to say that it isn't a good book.  Both books are easy beach reads.  But it just felt a little like re-reading the same book, when it wasn't a five star book worth re-reading, so I actually felt a little hoodwinked.
After a little research, I discovered this is the second book in a three book series.  If I had nothing better to do, I might read the third book just to see how it all ends out, but I feel like there wouldn't be many surprises.

The Good Sister by Jamie Kain

I come from a family of four sisters, so I know the love, jealousy, hate, loyalty and all encompassing relationship you can only have with a sister.  This is one of the few books that I have ever read that completely nails that bond.
The book begins with Sarah's death, and her view is a huge part of the story.  It felt reminiscent of The Lovely Bones, with her narrative woven throughout the story of her sisters trying to deal with the aftermath of losing her.  Asha and Rachel are basically raising themselves, left alone by a pseudo-hippie mother, who is really just too self-involved to parent, and a dad who has moved on to a child free life. 
I don't want to give away any spoilers, because I feel like this is a book that needs to be experienced by each person.  Maybe it won't strike others as deeply as it did me, but I think it will have an impact on anyone who has a sister.
The writing is so descriptive of the feelings that the girls invoke in each other, "She has a crazy way of doing that. I've never figured out what her game is, or where she gets her nerve, but she is an energy vortex. When she's near, I feel like I need to go take a nap.....I want her to stop sucking the energy out of me......But I can still feel her there, sucking, sucking, sucking.".

The story is intriguing, the writing is beautiful, I cared about the characters and their story.  There was no happy ending, just a broken family learning to move forward.
As Asha said, "She is everything I have ever known about love, and she's taught me how to know this feeling now."  That is what a sister is to me too.
I loved this book, and it's one of the few I willingly give 5 stars.  I can't wait to see the author's next book.
I was given a free ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review - and I only give honest reviews.

Vacation Reading........

One more day and I leave for Cozumel with three of my best friends!  Whenever, I plan a trip, before I even begin to pack my outfits, I start thinking about what I will read on the plane.

It's hard to pick the perfect book to read in front of strangers.  Let's face it, we all get skeeved when we have to sit next to someone reading "Fifty Shades of Grey".  I just try to look straight ahead and not make any sudden moves that could be interpreted as interest in being abused for pleasure.
I hate the time when you are taking off and landing where the mean stewardess forces you to turn off your iPad, even though you know the pilots are up front sexting their mistresses.  But if I bring magazines, I finish them and then I feel like people are judging me for being wasteful when I throw them away at the end of the flight.
I've got a few books loaded on my iPad, now I'm just trying to decide what I want to start.
I have the newest Janet Evanovich, "Top Secret Twenty-One".  I've had it for a couple of weeks, and haven't even had any desire to start it.  It's weird, because I used to wait for the release dates of the Stephanie Plum series.  But the last four or five, it just feels like she is phoning it in.  I think she peaked with "Four to Score".  That was a laugh out loud book, and I still like to go back and re-read it.
I've got Emily Giffin's new book, "The One & Only".  Even though I didn't love her last few books, "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue" are old favorites.  Hmmm....I'm seeing a pattern, even after an author starts to suck, I stay hopeful.  I guess I'm an optimist after all.
I've got John Green's "Paper Towns", "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline, and "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt.  They all seem too depressing to kick off a fun trip.  I need a fun read......any ideas?

Top Three Books of My Last Year

1. Gone, Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I know it's everyone's #1, but I've loved her since her earlier work, Dark Places and Sharp Objects.  Here's hoping stupid Ben Affleck doesn't ruin the book.

2. This One is Mine by Maria Semple. I don't know why this one struck such an emotional chord with me, but it did. Mid-life crisis chord. Throw away everything in your life for something stupid chord.

I read  it because I was kept hearing about Semple's bestseller, "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?", and I was 455th on the waiting list at the library, so I decided to see if her other book was any good. Bernadette was a good book,  but Mine was infinitely better.

3. Mother, Mother by Koran Zailckas. Family crumbling under the weight of one person's mental illness. Mental illness is hard. When it's your mother and her illness is narcissim, well, that's really hard. Like who's really crazy? hard.

There aren't many books that I will say you MUST read.  Usually, I'm happy to make a suggestion of what you MIGHT like because reading is such a personal preference.

These three are MUST reads. And if you don't like them, I would remember you fondly. Or not so fondly.

Interference by Michelle Berry

Oh boy.  What to say.  This book had about 12,876 too many characters.  And really no point.  I believe that the author was trying to point out the desperation that hides behind the perfect facade of the suburban neighborhood.  But since I didn't care about ANY of the many characters, I didn't care about their desperation.  And I already know that suburbia is a facade, but it's better than living in a box, right? 

The whole setup seemed to lead towards a secret pedophile in the neighborhood that was moving towards a kidnapping.  When it finally happened, it was so completely bizarre, and unbelievable that it didn't even seem like anyone was bothered - the only indication that anyone was bothered was by the description of the yellow ribbons around the neighborhood trees when the girl (who was basically a runaway) walked home.

The runaway young mother with the (not so) scary ex, yawn.  Nothing happened.  The man with a shovel mark splitting his face that stares at the young girl.

Even the cover was more interesting than the book...

Nothing happened.  The cancer survivor with an unhappy marriage.  The most exciting thing that happened to her was that her teenaged son wants her to play on a Senior Ladies Hockey League (Hockey? Nothing happened).


Oh yeah, every kid in this book was kind of repulsive.  Even more so that the adults.  That's kind of hard to do, right?

The author appears to have talent, but I think she had so many characters, she couldn't focus on any of them, and never seemed to find the story.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.